FLORA OF THOPICAL AFRICA. 



Order CIV. NYCTAGINE^. (By J. G. Baker, with 

 additions by C. H. Wright.) 



Flowers hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual, regular. Perianth inferior, 

 small, herbaceous or petaloid, persistent and usually accrescent ; tube 

 from short to very long, sometimes circumscissile above the base ; limb 

 truncate or 3-5-toothed or -lobed. Stamens l-oo , hypogynous ; 

 filaments free or connate into a cup at the base, involute-circinnate in. 

 bud ; anthers dorsifixed, 2-celled, dehiscence longitudinal. Ovary sessile 

 or stalked, 1-celled ; style short or long, slender ; stigma small, capitel- 

 late, peltate or fimbriate ; ovule solitary, erect, campylotropous, on a 

 short f anicle. Fruit {cmthocarp) enclosed in the persistent base of the 

 perianth, costate, sulcate or winged, sometimes glandular. Seed erect ; 

 endosperm scanty or copious ; embryo straight or curved. — Herbs, rarely 

 shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite and alternate, sessile or stalked, 

 simple, entire, exstipulate. Flowers in terminal or axillary cymes, 

 panicles or corymbs; bracts often forming a brightly coloured in- 

 volucre. 



Species about 150, chiefly American, from the United States to Chili ; a few in 

 India, tlie Mascarene and Pacific Isles. 



BongainviUea spectahilis, Willd., is naturalised at Banana, on the Lower Congo, 

 according to Dunind and Schinz, Etudes FI. Cungo, i. 231. 



Bracts large, connate 1. Mieabilis. 



Bracts minute, free 



Herbs; flowers hermaphrodite . . . .2. Boeuhaavia. 



Shrubs ; flowei's polygamo-dioecious 



Flowers and leaves not fascicled . . . .3. Pisoxia. 



Flowers and leaves fascicled .... 4. Ph.eoptilum. 



1. MIRABILIS, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 3. 



Involucre calyx-like, 5-lobed, marcescent, 1-cc -flowered. Perianth- 

 tube long, constricted above the ovary ; limb rather flattened, 5-lobed, 



