C. NYCTAGIXACE.i:, 483 



The following not belonging to either of the foregoing genera, all 

 natives of Tropical America, are coiuiuouly grown in gardens : — 



Mirabilis Jalapa, Linn. Sp. PL (1753) p, 177. The Marvel of Peru. 

 A large herbaceous plant grown in gardens throughout India and often 

 found as an escape. It is continually in bloom with IiJomcea-VikQ 

 flowers, some dark crimson, some yellow or white, and some crimson 

 striped with white or yellow. Grab. Cat. p. 167 ; Dalz. & Gibs. Suppl. 

 p. 72 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 303; Prain,Beng. 

 PL p. 862; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 5, p. 253.— Flowers : Aug.- 

 Dec. Veen. Gul-ahbas. 



Bougainvillcm speetabilis, Willd. Sp. PL v. 2 (1799) p. 348 (Bngin- 

 villcea). A large thorny extensively climbing shrub, a native of Brazil, 

 with pubescent branches and leaves, bearing in the hot season a 

 profusion of small pale yellow flowers supported by large purple or 

 magenta-colored bracts which render the plant a most conspicuous 

 object, a perfect blaze of color in the hot weather. The plant was 

 introduced from Bengal by Sir E. Perry and is now common in gardens 

 as a covering to trellises, archways, and the like. Dalz. & Gibs. Suppl. 

 p. 72 ; Woodr. Gard. in Ind. ed."5, p. 424; Prain, Beng. PL p. 863. 



A variety (later itia) with brick-red bracts is sometimes grown. 



Bougaininllcea glabra, Choisy, in DC. Prodr. v. 13, part 2 (1849) 

 p. 437. A plant a native of Brazil, very like the former but of more 

 weakly growth, with glabrous branches and leaves, and almost, if not 

 entirely, free from spines. Plowers more or less throughout the year, 

 while B, speetabilis only flowers in the hot season. Woodr. Gard. in 

 Ind. ed. 5, p. 424; Prain, Beng. PL p. 863. 



ObdeeCI. ILLECEBRACEiE. 



Annual or pei'ennial herbs. Leaves usually opposite ; stipules 

 scarious. Elowers minute, usually hermaphrodite, cymose, often with 

 scarious bracts. Perianth herbaceous or coriaceous, persistent and 

 often indurated after flowering, 4-5-lobed or 4-5-partite. Petals 0. 

 Stamens as many as the segments of the perianth (rarely fewer or more) 

 and opposite to them, perigynous (rarely hypogynous) ; filaments short ; 

 anthers didymous. Ovary free, 1-celled ; ovule solitary in each cell, 

 erect, or pendulous from a basal funicle ; style 2-3-fid. Utricle enclosed 

 in the perianth. Seed globose, lenticular or reniform ; testa smooth ; 

 albumen floury ; embryo straight, curved or annular ; cotyledons oblong ; 

 radicle inferior, — Disteib. Genera 17 ; species about 70 in most warm 

 dry regions. 



1. COMETES, Linn. 



Low annular branched herbs. Leaves opposite, sessile or narrowed 

 into a short petiole, mucronate, entire ; stipules minute, setaceous. 

 Flowers 3 together, the central flower only perfect, surrounded by 

 ferruginous feathery many-partite at length elongate and squarrose 

 bracts. Perianth herbaceous, 5-partite ; segments erect, linear-oblong, 

 awned at the back below the apex. Stamens 5, perigynous, alternating 

 and united with 5 membranous staminodes forming a cup below ; 



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