130 NYCTAGINACEAE. 



entire, truncate or cordate at the base, the petioles about one half as long as 

 the blades; involucres eampanulate, 7-8 mm. high, pubescent, 1-flowered, their 

 lobes ovate-lanceolate, twice as long as the tube, acute, bristle-tipped; calyx 

 trumpet-shaped, 3-5 cm. long, deep red to purple or white, often more or less 

 blotched, the edge notched; stamens exserted; fruit ovoid, black, 8-10 mm. 

 long, wrinkled-tuberculate, 5-ribbed. 



Waste grounds, spontaneous after cultivation, New Providence, Eleiithera and 

 Fortune Island : Bermuda : Florida : the West Indies ; continental tropical Amer- 

 ica north through Mexico. FOUR-O'CLOCK. 



2. BOERHAAVEA L. Sp. PI. 3. 1753. 



Slender herbs with forking stems and branches, opposite leaves, and small 

 minutely bracted flowers on jointed pedicels. Calyx campanulate to funnel- 

 form, its limb 5-lobed. Stamens 1-5, exserted, the slender filaments united at 

 the base. Ovary oblique ; style filiform ; stigma peltate. Fruit obovoid or 

 clavate, 5-angled or 5-ribbed. [In honor of Hermann Boerhaave, 1668-1738, 

 a celebrated Dutch scientist.] About 50 species, natives of warm and tropical 

 regions. Type species: Boerhaavea diffusa L. 



Fruit with viscid glands. 1. B. coccinea. 



Fruit not glandular. 2. B. erecta. 



1. Boerhaavea coccinea Mill. Gard. Diet. No. 8. 1768. 



Boerhaavea paniculata Eich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 105. 1792. 

 Boerhaavia Mrsuta Willd. Sp. PI. 1 : 20. 1797. 



Perennial by somewhat fleshy roots; stems 2-10 dm. long, slender, 

 branched, procumbent or ascending, usually pubescent, at least below, the 

 branches glabrous or puberulent. Leaves rhombic-ovate to oblong or nearly 

 orbicular, 2-6.5 cm. long, rounded, obtuse or rarely acute at the apex, rounded 

 or subcordate at the base, slender-petioled, entire or undulate; panicle slender, 

 often 3 dm. long, its branches nearly filiform, glabrous or puberulent; flowers 

 reddish, 2 mm. broad, nearly sessile in small glomerules of 2-several ; fruit 

 obovoid, 2.5-4 mm. long, 5-grooved, glandular. 



Roadsides and waste places. North Bimini, Andros, New Providence, Great 

 Guana Cay, Eleuthera. Cat Island, Fortune Island and Inagua : Florida: West 

 indies ; Mexico through Central America to northern South America ; tropical 

 Africa. VISCID HOG-WEED. 



2. Boerhaavea erecta L. Sp. PI. 3. 1753. 



Stem erect or ascending, branched ; leaves ovate to deltoid-ovate, some- 

 times inequilateral, 2-8 cm. long, apiculate, repand or undulate, acute to cordate 

 at the base, minutely black-dotted on the lower whitish surface, the petioles 

 usually about one half as long as the blades or longer; peduncles filiform; 

 flowers 2-6 in a cluster ; calyx white to purple, its tube glabrous, the limb 

 campanulate, 1-1.5 mm. long, sparingly pubescent; stamens exserted; fruit 

 obpyramidal, 3.5-4 mm. long, 5-angled, the grooves transversely wrinkled, the 

 top flat. 



Waste grounds, New Providence: southern United States: Bermuda; New 

 Mexico and California to Peru and Brazil ; the West Indies. SMOOTH HOG-WEED. 



3. COMMICABPUS Standley, Contr. Nat. Herb. 12: 373. 1909. 



Perennial herbs, with long forking stems, opposite entire petioled mostly 

 cordate leaves, and small perfect umbellate flowers. Calyx short-funnelform, 



