366 NYCTAGINACEAE. [ Boerhaavia. 
+3. P. major, L. — DC. Prod. XII, 694. — A perennial herb. Leaves 
radical, broadly ovate or ovate-oblong, entire or toothed, glabrous or pu- 
bescent, 5—9-nerved, on rather long petioles. Peduncles usually longer 
than the leaves, bearing a long slender spike of small sessile flowers. 
Bracts similar to the sepals. Sepals about 1“, green, with a scarious 
edge, somewhat obtuse, the anterior ones keeled, Corolla brownish. 
Capsule 2-celled, with 4—8 seeds in each cell. 
and on pastures. The well known Plantain, a native of Europe and 
Asia. which has followed the white man to nearly every part of the globe. On the 
ORDER LXVI. NYCTAGINACEAE. 
Flowers apetalous, supported by distinct or connate bracts. Calyx 
generally colored, funnel-shaped or tubular, with a short limb, the tube 
persistent, at last indurated and enclosing the fruit, the limb plaited 
in the bud, deciduous. Stamens definite, hypogynous; anthers 2-celled, 
the cells rounded. Ovary 1-celled, with a single erect ovule. Style simple. 
Embryo spiral or straight. Albumen mealy, — Herbs, shrubs or trees, 
with tumid nodes. Leaves entire, mostly opposite, but the pair unequal. 
Natives of the warmer parts of the world. 
Erect herbs; involucre large cup-shaped; stamens 5. , ; pi Mirabilis. 
Prostrate herbs; involucre of many small bracts; stamens 2—4 . 2. Boerhaavia. 
Trees; involucre of 1—3 deciduous bracts; stamens 6—20 . ; 3. Pisonia 
In cultivation: Bougainvillea spectabilis, Willd. 
1. MIRABILIS, L. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, each surrounded by a cup-shaped 5-cleft in: 
volucre. Calyx or perigone tubular, with spreading limb. Stamens 5, 
connate at the base, about as long as the tube. Style a little exse es 
with globose stigma. Embryo curved round mealy albumen, with folia- 
ceous cotyledons and inferior radicle. — Herbs. Flowers solitary in the 
axils, crowded near the apex. 
Five or six species, natives of Mexico. 
+1. M. Jalapa, L. — DC. Prod. XIII, Sect. II, p. 427. — Anerect glabrous 
perennial, 1—2 ft. high. Leaves ovate or subcordate, 9—4' long, oD 
petioles of 1/,—1‘, acute. Flowers 3—6, on short pedicels, purple, red, 
yellow or white. Calyx about 1‘, exceeding the involucre. 
The well known «Four o’clock» flower, along roadsides here and there, an escape 
from gardens. 
2. BOERHAAVIA, L. f 
Flowers hermaphrodite, supported by deciduous bractlets. Perigone 
colored, tubular, constricted about the middle, the nearly entire 5-plat 
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