; Borrnaavis.] NYCTAGINACE®. 3 
; “ 
- Himalaya ; also in Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula ; extending to 
China, Africa, America and the Islands of the Pacific. The root is 
used medicinally and the leaves are eaten as a pot-herb. The viscid 
perianth-tube containing the fruit is easily detached and thus becomes 
widely distributed by animals. 
2. B, repanda, Willd. Sp. Pl. i, 22; Royle Jil. 312; #. B. I, 
iv, 709 ; Prain Beng. Pl. 863 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. wi, 480. 
A diffuse subscandent herb, glabrous or pubescent; branches 3-6 ft. 
long, cylindric, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves in nearly equal pairs, 
1-3 in. long, triangular-ovate, acute or acuminate, repand-sinuate, 
glabrous above, pubescent beneath, base cordate or truncate ; petioles 
slender, 3-14 in. long. Umbels 3-8-fld., on long slender peduncles ; 
pedicels filiform, }-1 in. long ; bracteoles lanceolate, acute. Perianth 
pink, about 2 in. long, lobes notched. Stamens 4 or 5, much exserted. 
Fruit } in. long, clavate, obscurely ribbed, rough with glandular 
projections. 
Plentiful within the area, and often found climbing amongst buskes. 
DistriB.: Throughout the W. Peninsula; also in Ceylon, Balu 
chistan and Burma, extending to China and Australia. 
. $. B, verticillata, Poir. Encycl. Méthod. v. 56; F. B. I. iv, 710; 
Cooke Fl. Bomb. ti, 480. Vern. Satha (Merwara). 
A decumbent or climbing annual or perennial herb ; branches long, pale, 
terete, glabrous. Leaves thick, 14-2} in. long, often broader than 
long, broadly ovate or suborbicular, obtuse, mucronate, usually 
glabrous, margins sinuate, base usually cordate, petioles 3-? in. 
Flowers in long-peduncled racemes, arranged in distant few-flowered 
whorls on aslender rhachis; bracteoles small, ovate-oblong, acute, 
deciduous, pedicels slender. Perianth usually white, 4 in. long, 
lower portion constricted above the ovule, limb funnel-shaped, lobes 
2-fid. Stamens slightly exserted. Fruit 4 in. long, clavate, with 
large semi-globose glands round the crown. 
Merwara in Rajputana (Duthie). Distris.: Punjab, Sind and in the 
drier parts of the W. Peninsula; also in Afghanistan and Bajncbi- 
stan, extending westwards to Syria and Trop. Africa. 
The following plants belonging to genera introduced from South 
America, are much grown in the gardens of North India :— 
MiraBitis Jatapa L. (Marvel of Peru)—A tall much-branchec 
perennial herb, bearing a profusion of yellow white crimson or varie- 
gated flowers. It is cultivated in all parts of India, and is sometimes 
