506 



NYCTAGINACEiE. 



[Hypogynous Exogens. 



Order CXCII. NYCTAGINACE^.— Nyctagos. 



Nyctagines, Juss. Gen. 90. (1789) ; R. Brown Prodr. 421. (1810) ; Bartl. Ord. Nat. 109 ; Biidl. Gen. civ.; 



Meisner, p. 318. 



Diagnosis. — Chenopodal Exogens, with a tubular often coloured calyx, which separates 

 from its base, the latter becoming a hard spitrious pericaip. 



Annuals or perennials, often with fleshy roots, or shrubs or trees, usually articiilated 

 at the tumid nodes. [The vascular system double ; the central consisting of bundles 

 scattered among the pith, the circumferential 

 of bimdles not adlieinng to each other. — linger.'] 

 Leaves opposite, and almost always unequal ; 

 sometimes alternate. Flowers axillary or ter- 

 minal, clustered or solitary, sometimes imperfect, 

 having an involucre which is either common or 

 proper, in one piece or in several pieces, some- 

 times minute, but more generally very large, 

 and sometimes gaily coloxu-ed. Calyx tubular, 

 somewhat coloured, contracted ui the middle ; 

 its limb entire or toothed, plaited in aestivation, 

 becoming indm^ated at the base, and losing the 

 limb which is deciduous. Stamens definite, 

 hypogynous, sometimes on one side ; anthers 

 2-celled. Ovary superior, with a smgle erect 

 o\ade, whose foramen is inferior ; style 1, ter- 

 minal or somewhat lateral ; stigma 1 . Fruit a 

 thin utricle, inclosed within the enlarged per- 

 sistent base of the calyx. Seed ^sathout its 

 proper integuments, its testa being coherent 

 ^\\t\\ the utricle ; embryo ^\'ith foUaceous cotyle- 

 dons, wrapping round flomy albumen ; radicle 

 inferior ; plumule inconspicuous. 



Here we have a race of plants, of which the 

 common Marvel of Peini is the type, whose 

 affinity is clearly vath the Chenopods and 

 Amaranths, from which it is distinguished by the 

 cm'ious property of 

 converting the base of 

 its thin membranous 

 tubular calyx into a 

 tough or bony shell 

 which acts as a peri- 

 carp to the seed, whose 

 real pericarp is but a 

 membrane. More- 

 over, the tubular ca- 

 lyx, the limb of which 

 is plaited in aestiva- 

 tion, together with 

 the cm-ved embryo 

 and farmaceous al- 

 bumen, at all times 

 distinguish Nyctagos ; 

 add to which, the ar- 

 ticulations of the stem 

 are often tumid, as in 

 Cranesbills. Schlei- 

 den states ( Wiegman^s 



Arch. 1839), that the Fig. CCCXLV. Fig. CCCXLVI. 



wood figm-ed at t. 42, 



Fig. CCCXLV.— 1. Abronia mellifera ; 2. a flower separate ; 3. its stamens and pistil : 4. the pistil 

 separate ; 6. the fruit ; C. seed magnified ; 7. a cross section of it ; 8. the lower portion of the flower of 

 Mu-abilis .Jalapa ; 9. its fruit ; 10. a perpendicular section of it. 



Fig. CCCXLVI.— risonia grandis. 1. a flower ; 2. a pistil ; 3. a cluster of fruits. 



