Chenopodales.] 



NYCTAGINACE.E. 



507 



p. 100, of the thii'd edition of my Introduction to Botany, is that of a Pisonia, a genus 

 belonguig to this Order ; and he explains its singular structui'e by supposuig it to 

 consist of numerous vascular bundles, which continue to be developed until they form 

 at last an almost continuous mass. The pai'enchjTna'^'liich separated them is thereby 

 compressed into insulated patches, which are scattered through the completely formed 

 wood in httle narrow vertical cords (strcenge), which, as regards their origin, may be 

 termeti vertical medullary rays ; and he finds a similar structure m Amaranths, Beta, 

 Atripliix, Chenopodium, and Peppers. As this organisation appears from Schultz 

 (Nat. Syst. fig. 1. 2. 5. 6.), to be present also in Boerhaavia and Mirabilis, it would seem 

 to be characteristic of the Order. I however find a very different structure in 

 Boerhaavia repanda, which has zoned wood, although its rings are broken by the intro- 

 duction of vertical cords of cellular tissue : its pith contains many fistulse of lax, soft, 

 spheroidal, cellvdar tissue, surrounded by smaller, harder, more cubical tissue, which 

 passes into the medvdlary plates. The scrambling Bugainvillea, with its large rose- 

 coloured bracts, gathered into cones Uke those of a Hop, seems to indicate some analogy 

 with Hempworts. 



The species are natives of the warmer parts of the world in either hemisphere, 

 scarcely extending far beyond the tropics, except in the case of the Abronias found 

 in North-west America, and a few Boerhaa\'ias in the Southern hemisphere. 



In consequence of the generally purgative quahty of the roots of species of this 

 family, one of them (IVIirabihs jalapa) was supposed to have been the true Jalap plant, 

 which is, however, now known to be a mistake. See Convolvulace^. The flowers of 

 several species of Mirabilis are handsome, as are those also of some of the Abronias ; 

 but the greater part of the Order is composed of obscm-e weeds. The genus Pisonia 

 consists of ti'ees or slunibby plants agreemg in property mth the Boerhaavias, of which 

 the species have generally emetic and purgative roots. Boerhaavia hirsuta is employed 

 in ictenis ; B. tuberosa, a doubtful plant of the Order, called Yerba de la piu'gacion in 

 Peru, is regarded as an antisj'pliihtic, but it is also employed as a culinary vegetable. 

 Boerhaavia procmnbens, an East Indian species, is reckoned antifebrile. According to 

 Aublet, the root of B. decumbens (called Hogmeat in Jamaica), is emetic, and called 

 Ipecacuanha in Guiana. Schombiu-gk states that it is astringent, and used in the fonu 

 of decoction in dysentery. Marabihs dichotoma, the Marvel of Peru, called by the 

 French Fleur de quatre heures, and M. longiflora, two plants now common in om* 

 gardens, are very drastic. M. suaveolens, a species with an Anise flavour, is employed 

 in Mexico against diarrhoea and rheumatic pains. 



Boerhaavia, Linn. 

 Collignonia, Endl. 

 Abronia, Juss. 



Tricratus, Ilerit. 

 Mirabilis, Linn. 



Nyctago, Juss. 



Jala-pa, Tournef. 

 Oxybaphus, Herit. 



Calyxhymenia, Orteg 



Calymenia, Nutt. 



Vitmannia, Turr. 

 Allionia, Linn. 



Wedelia, Ldffl. 

 Okenia, Schiede. 

 Tricycla, Cavan. 



GENERA. 



Bugainvillea, Commers- 

 Josepha, Fl. Flum. 



Reichenbachia, Sjnrng. 



Salpianthus, H. et B. 

 Boldoa, Cavan. 



Neea, Ruiz et Pav. 

 Mitscherlichia, Kunth. 



Numbers. Gen. 14. Sp. 100.1 



Polygonacece. 

 Position. — Amarantacese. — Nyctaginace^.- 

 Cannabinacece ? 



Pisonia, Plum. 



Calpidia, Thouars. 



Bcssera, Flor. Flum. 



Pallavia, Flor, Flum. 



Torruhia, Flor. Flum. 



Colummclla, Flor. Fl 

 ? Epilithes, Blume. 



