Mirabilis. | NYCTAGINE# (Cooke). 393 
I, MIRABILIS, Linn. 
Involucre calyx-like, 1- to many-flowered, gamophyllous, 5-lobed ; 
lobes acuminate. Perianth coloured ; tube long, constricted above 
the ovary ; limb spreading, 5-lobed, plicate, deciduous. Stamens 
5—6, unequal, exserted ; filaments filiform, incurved, united into a 
fleshy cup at the base ; anther-cells subglobose. Ovary ellipsoid or 
ovoid ; ovule solitary, erect ; style filiform, exserted ; stigma globose, 
bearing stalked papille. Fruit ribbed, enclosed in the hardened 
base of the perianth and surrounded by the persistent staminal cup. 
Seed filling the pericarp to which the testa adheres ; embryo curved ; 
cotyledons surrounding the scanty farinaceous albumen. 
Di- or tri-chotomously branched glabrous or glandular perennial herbs ; root 
thickened, tuberous; leaves opposite, the lower petiolate, the upper sessile ; 
involucres cymosely arranged ; flowers large, fragrant or not, white, red, yellow 
or variegated. : 
Distris. Species about 10 in the hotter parts of America, introduced 
elsewhere. 
1. M. Jalapa (Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. i. 177); an erect perennial much- 
branched herb reaching 2 ft. or more high; root tuberous ; stem 
glabrous or shortly pubescent ; leaves up to 3 in. long, 1} in. broad, 
ovate, acuminate, glabrous or pulverulent above, entire, often with 
ciliate margins, base rounded, truncate or cordate ; petioles slender, 
3-12 lin. long; flowers inodorous, 3-6 in each cyme ; involucre 
nearly 4 in. long, glandular when young; lobes ovate, shortly 
bristle-tipped ; perianth purple, red, yellow or white, sometimes 
more or less blotched; tube 14 in. long, cylindric below, funnel- 
shaped at the top ; limb spreading, | in. or more in diam. ; stamens 
exserted ; fruit ovoid, black, 4-5 lin. long, wrinkled-tuberculate, 
5-ribbed. Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 1, i. 234; Bot. Mag. t. 371 ; Choisy in 
DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 427; Baker & Wright in Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. 
vi. i. 2. M. dichotoma, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, ii. 931, and Sp. Pl. ed. ii. 252. 
Eastern Rearon: Natal; near Durban, Grant ! 
Also in Tropical Africa. Known as ‘‘ The Marvel of Peru,” of which country 
it is a native ; established now in many parts of the Old World, 
II. BORRHAAVIA, Vaill. 
Bracis small, often deciduous, rarely whorled and involucrate. 
Perianth-tube long or short, cylindric, narrowed above the ovary, 
the lower part persistent and becoming hardened to enclose the 
fruit, the upper part petaloid and deciduous; limb funnel-shaped 
with 5-lobed margin, the lobes plicate. Stamens 1~5, more or less 
exserted ; filaments capillary, unequal, connate below. Ovary 
oblique, stipitate; ovule erect; style filiform; stigma peltate. 
