452 NYCTAGINACEAE 







(Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 303-389, 1909); Allioniaceae of Mexico and Central America 

 (1. c. 13: 377-430, 1911). 



Flowers without an involucre, each pedicel bearing or subtended by 1 to 3 small bracts. 

 Calyx campanulate or funnelform, mostly reddish or purplish. 



Fruit 5-angled or 5-ribbed 1. BOERHAAVIA. 



Fruit globose, smooth 2. HERMIDIUM. 



Calyx salver-shaped with very much elongated tube, white 3. ACLEISANTHES. 



Flowers subtended by an involucre. 



Involucral bracts distinct or nearly so ; fruit usually winged. 



Bracts 5 or more, wholly distinct; fruit without glands 4. ABRONIA. 



Bracts 3, distinct nearly to base ; fruit with 2 rows of glands 5. WEDELIELLA. 



Involucre composed of more or less united bracts; fruit not winged. 



Fruit 5-ribbed ; involucre enlarged in fruit 6. ALLIONIA. 



Fruit mostly smooth; involucre unchanged in fruit 7. MIRABILIS. 



1. BOERHAAVIA L. 



Slender herbs with glandular rings about the internodes. Blades of the 

 opposite leaves unequal. Bracts minute, 1 to 3 to each flower. Flowers small, 

 on jointed pedicels. Calyx campanulate or funnelform, 5-lobed. Stamens 1 

 to 5; filaments slender, united at base. Stigma shield-shaped. Fruit club- 

 shaped to obpyramidal, 3 to 5 (or 10) -ribbed, or -angled, or narrowly winged. 

 Species 50, all continents. (H. Boerhaave, 1668-1738, famous Dutch physi- 

 cian and botanist, professor at Leiden.) 



Calyx campanulate; fruit 5-ribbed. 



Annual ; fruit glabrous 1. B. intermedia. 



Perennial ; fruit glandular- viscid , 2. B. hirsuta. 



Calyx funnelform; fruit obscurely 10-ribbed 3. B. annulata. 



1. B. intermedia Jones. Low, spreading or ascending, the stems almost 

 filiform-slender, % to 1*4 feet long; leaves elliptic to lanceolate, obtuse or 

 acute; peduncles bearing 2 to 5 umbellate or subcapitate flowers; calyx 1 line 

 long; fruit cuneate or short-clavate, 1 to l l / 2 lines long. 



Southwestern Colorado Desert (Orcutt 2090 ace. Standley), east to Texas 

 and south into Mexico. 



Eefs. BOERHAAVIA INTERMEDIA Jones, Contrib. 10: 41 (1902), type loc. El Paso, Tex., 

 Jones 4173; Stand. Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 382 (1909). 



2. B. hirsuta Willd. Stem branching, 2 or 3 feet long, parts or some of 

 the internodes and petioles sparsely hirsute-glandular; leaves round-ovate, 

 mostly obtuse or some acutish, rounded at base, l / 2 to 2 inches long; flowers 

 nearly sessile in small clusters terminating slender peduncles, the peduncles 

 more or less divaricate in a loose panicle; calyx red, 1 line long; fruit 1 to 

 2 lines long, 5-ribbed. 



San Jacinto Valley and Coyote Canon (Southern California), east to Arizona 

 and Mexico. 



Refs. BOERHAAVIA HIRSUTA Willd. Phyt. 1 (1794); Stand. Contrib. TJ. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 

 382 (1909). 



3. B. annulata Cov. Perennial; stem stout, erect from an ascending base, 

 glabrous, glaucous, 1 to 3 feet high, the middle of each internode usually with 

 a reddish mucilaginous ring; leaves ovate-oblong, cordate or rounded at base, 

 obtusish at apex, thick, rigid, fleshy, entire or sometimes "lacerate," 1 to 2 

 inches long, hirsute; petiole nearly as long as blade; flowers 3 to 4 lines 

 long, in small clusters terminating the branches ; stamens 3, and with the style, 

 conspicuously exserted; fruit turbinate, glabrous, obscurely 10-ribbed, 2y 2 

 lines long. 



Death Valley region. 



Eefs. BOERHAAVIA ANNULATA Cov. Contrib. TJ. S. Nat. Herb. 4: 177, pi. 18 (1893), type loc. 

 Furnace Creek Canon, Funeral Mts., Coville 577. Anulocaulis annulatus Stand. Contrib. 

 U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 375 (1909). 



