2 NYCTAGINACE.E. Mirabilis. 



TRIBE III. ACLEISANTHEJl. Involucre only of 2 or 3 small bractlets to each flower, or 

 wholly wanting : stigma smooth, peltate or cap-shaped. 



4. Boerhaavia. Inflorescence usually paniculate or spicate. Fruit 5-angled. 



TRIBE IV. BOUGAINVILLE.^, luvolucral bracts dilated, mostly solitary on the pedicel of 

 each flower. 



5. Hermidium. Perianth tubular campanulate. Fruit smooth, not ribbed nor angled. 



1. MIRABILIS, Linn. FOUR-O'CLOCK. 



Involucre calyx-like, 5-cleft or -parted, herbaceous, often large but unchanged in 

 fruit, 1-1 2-flowered. Perianth tubular or more or less broadly funnelform, with a 

 spreading limb. Stamens usually 5, as long as the perianth ; filaments united at 

 base. Stigma capitate, granulate. Fruit globose to ovate-oblong, smooth, obscurely 

 or not at all ribbed or angled. Perennial herbs, with opposite leaves nearly equal 

 in the pairs : peduncles solitary in the axils or paniculate : flowers nearly sessile in 

 the involucres. 



A genus of 10 or 12 species, of the Western United States and Mexico, the earliest known 

 species also from South America and common in cultivation (the Four-o'clock or Marvel-of-Peru, 

 M. Jalapa), now naturalized in many countries. In this, as in some other genera, the flowers 

 frequently are fertilized in the bud, in which case the perianth remains small without opening. 



1. flowers 3 or more in the involucre, large, with long-tubular or funnelform 

 perianth. QUAMOCLIDION, Choisy. 



1. M. multtflora, Gray. Stout, spreading, roughish puberulent or nearly gla- 

 brous ; stems 2 or 3 feet long : leaves rather thin, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 

 often somewhat cordate at base but decurrent upon the petiole, acute or shortly 

 acuminate, 1 to 3 inches long, on slender petioles half an inch long or less : pedun- 

 cles \ to 2 inches long : involucre large, about an inch long, 5-cleft a third to half 

 the way down ; the lobes acute or acuminate : flowers xisually 6 (5 surrounding 

 a central one), broadly funnelform, pale rose-color to purple, with the tube somewhat 

 greenish, \\ to 2 inches long: stamens 5, as long as the acutely 5-lobed perianth, 

 shorter than the filiform style : fruit ovate-oblong, 3 or 4 lines long, rarely nearly 

 globose, marked toward the base by 10 shallow furrows and as many intermediate 

 dark lines. Bot. Mex. Bound. 173. Oxybaphus multiflorus, Torrey, Ann. Lye. 

 N. York, ii. 237. Nyctaginia (?) Torreyana, Choisy in DC. Prodr. xiii 2 . 430. 

 Quamoclidion multiflornm, Torrey, Am. Journ. Sci. 2 ser. xv. 321. 



Var. pubescens, Watson. Very pubescent throughout. 



A common species eastward, ranging from Colorado to the Rio Grande and westward to S. 

 California ; San Diego (Cleveland). The variety is peculiar to S. California, from near Fort 

 Tejon ( Wallace, Kennedy) to San Diego County, Palmer. A doubtful form occurs in cultivation 

 from Californian seed (Hook. f. Bot. Mag. t. 6266), still more glandular-pubescent, the leaves 

 broadly ovate, deeply cordate at base and not decurrent upon the very short petiole, obtuse or 

 acutish : lobes of the involucre acutish, and those of the perianth retuse : fruit not at all furrowed 

 at base, sometimes very obscurely lined. It is perhaps the Oxybaphus Froebelii of Behr, Proc. 

 Calif. Acad. i. 69, from near Warner's Ranch in the mountains of San Diego County, but the 

 description is very defective. 



2. M. G-reenei, Watson. Very stout, somewhat glandular-puberulent : leaves 

 rather thick, ovate, acute, attenuate to a short stout petiole, 3 inches long : invo- 

 lucre acutely lobed, 1 to 1| inches long, 7 - 10-flowered : perianth funnelform, a 

 half longer than the involucre : fruit ovate-oblong, 3 to nearly 4 lines long, usually 

 abruptly contracted near the base, rather strongly 5-angled, the sides somewhat ridged 

 longitudinally and more or less irregularly tuberculate. Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 253. 



Collected by Rev. E. L. Greene on mountain -sides about Yreka, Siskiyou County ; June, in 

 flower and fruiting. 



