MIRABILIS NYCTAGINACE^E 566 



1 -seeded nut contained in a foliaceous tubular involucre. 



* * Flowers monoecious or dioecious, all in aments : ovary superior. 



90 Betulaceae Trees or shrubs with simple leaves with distinct deciduous 

 stipules: staminate flowers iu long aments ; pistillate in shorter or head- 

 like aments: fruit a many- seeded cone with thickened and rigid scales. 



91 Myricaceae Shrubs with simple leaves mostly without stipules: flowers 

 monoecious or dioecious, without calyx: fruit small, often waxy-coated, 

 drupelets. 



92 Salicaceae Trees or shrubs with simple leaves with scaly and decidu- 

 ous or foliaceous and persistent stipules: fruit many-seeded capsules. 



ORDER LXXIV NYCTAGINACE^E Lindl. Nat, Syst. 231. 



Herbs, some tropical genera trees or shrubs with fragile stems 

 and tumid joints, watery juice, entire petiolate mostly opposite 

 leaves without stipules and perfect flowers in terminal or axillary 

 clusters often subtended by an involucre. Calyx corolla-like, tu- 

 bular to campanulate,the persistent base indurated and constric- 

 ted over the ovary. Stamens few, hypogynous, with slender 

 filaments and rounded 2-celled anthers. Ovary 1-celled, with a 

 solitary campylotropous ovule. Style short or elongated. 

 Stigma capitate. Fruit consisting of the hardened base of the 

 calyx, enclosing the free achene. 



1 Mirabilis Involucre 5-lobed, not changed in fruit stamens usualy 5 : 



fruit not angled or winged. 



8 Allionia Involucre calyx-like, deeply 5-lobed, 3-5 flowered: stamens 

 3-5 : fruit with a double row of tubercles on the back surrounded by a 

 winged margin. 



8 Abronia Involucre of 5 or more distinct bracts surrounding a manv- 

 flowered head : calyx salverforin, including the stamens and style : fruit 

 wing-angled. 



1 MIRABILIS L. 



Perennial herbs with opposite leaves and showy flowers in in- 

 volucrate terminal clusters. Involucre calyx-like, 5-cleft or 5- 

 parted 1-12-flowered, not changed in fruit. Calyx corolla-like, 

 tubular or more or less broadly funnelform with a spreading limb. 

 Stamens usually 5, as long as the calyx : filaments united at base. 

 Stigma capitate, granulate. Fruit globose to ovoid-oblong, 

 smooth. obscurely or not at all ribbed or angled. 



M. Greenei Watson Proc. Am, Acad. xii, 253. Somewhat glandular- 

 puberulent: stems very stout and branching 2-3 feet high: leaves rather thick 

 ovate, acute, 2-3 inches long, attenuate to a short stout petiole: involucre ac- 

 utely lobed, 1-1 % inches long, 7-10-flowered: calyx dull red, or whitish nearly 



2 inches long, funnelform: fruit ovate-oblong 3-4 lines long, usually abruptly 

 contracted near the base, rather strongly 5-angled. On barren clayey hill- 

 sides near the Klamath river in California, perhaps in Oregon farther east. 



