PLATE XXXVI. 



1. MIRABILIS JALAPA 



MARVEL OF PERU. 



THIS genus furnishes plants of the flowery perennial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Pentandria Monogynia, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Nyctagines. 



The characters are: that the calyx has the outer perianthium 

 ^one-leafed, erect-ventricose, inferior, five-parted: segments ovate- 

 lanceolate, sharp, unequal, permanent: inner globular placed under 

 the petal, with a contracted entire mouth, and permanent: the corolla 

 is one-petalled, funnel-form: the tube slender, long, thicker at top, 

 placed on the inner calyx: border from upright spreading, entire, 

 bluntly five-cleft, plaited: nectary spherical, fleshy, surrounding the 

 germ, with a five-toothed mouth: teeth very small, triangular, con- 

 verging: the stamina have five filaments inserted into the orifice of 

 the nectary, and alternate with its teeth, within the inner calyx free, 

 more slender, fastened at bottom to the tube of the corolla, filiform, 

 the length of the corolla, inclining, unequal: anthers twin, roundish, 

 rising: the pistillum is a turbinate germ, within the nectary: style 

 filiform, the length and situation of the stamens: stigma globular, 

 dotted, rising: there is no pericarpium: the inner calyx incrusts the 

 seed and falls with it: the seed single, ovate-five-cornered. 



The species cultivated are: 1. M. jalapa, Common Marvel of 

 Peru ; 2. M. dichotoma, Forked Marvel of Peru ; 3. M. longiflora, 

 Sweet-scented Marvel of Peru. 



The first has a thick fleshy root: the stem thick, upright, much 

 branched, and divided three feet or more in height: the leaves are 

 broad, oblong, and opposite: flowers terminating, about six, in clus- 



