3GO NYCTAGINACE.E. (FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY.) 



2. ARISTOL.6C II IA, Tourn. BIRTHWORT. 



Calyx tubular, the tube extended, variously inflated above the ovary, mostly 

 contracted at the throat. Stamens 6, the sessile anthers wholly adnate to the 

 back of the short and fleshy 3-G-lobed or angled stigma. Pod naked, 6-valved. 

 Seed-; ilat. Twining, climbing, or sometimes upright perennial herbs or shrubs, 

 with alternate leaves and lateral or axillary greenish or lurid-purple flowers. 

 (Named from its reputed medicinal properties.) 



1. Calyx-tube bent like the letter S, enlarged at the two ends, the, small limb obtusely 

 3-lobed : an f hers in pairs (making 4 cells in a row under each of the 3 truncate 

 lobes of the stigma) : low herbs. 



1. A. Scr|)Ciit;iria, L. (VIRGINIA SNAKEROOT.) Stems (8'- 15' 

 high) branched at the base, pubescent; leaves ovate or oblong from a heart- 

 shaped base, or halberd-form, mostly acute or pointed; flowers all next the 

 root, short-peduncled. A narrow-leaved variety is A. sagitt.'ita, Mnhl., A. hir- 

 suta, Nutt., c. Rich woods, Connecticut to Indiana and southward; not 

 common except near the Alleghany Mountains. July. The librous, aromatic- 

 stimulant root is well known in medicine. 



2. Calyx-tube strongly curved like a Dutch pipe, contracted at the mouth, the slcrt 

 limb obscurely 3-lobed : anthers in pairs under each of the 3 short and thick lubes oj 

 the stigma : twininy shrubs : flowers from one or two of the superposed accessory 

 axiUary buds. 



2. A. Siplio, L'Hcr. (PIPE- VINE- DUTCHMAN'S PIPE.) Glabrous; 

 leaves round-kidney-shaped, slightly downy underneath ; peduncles with a clasp- 

 ing bract; calyx (H' long) with a brown-purple, abrupt flat border. Rich 

 woods, Penn. to Kentucky, and southward, along the mountains. May. Stems 

 sometimes 2' in diameter, climbing trees : full-grown leaves 8' -12' broad. 



3. A. tOHK'tttosa, Sims. Downy or soft-hairy; leaves round-heart-shaped, 

 very veiny (3' -5' long) ; calyx greenish-yellow, with an oblique dark purple dosed 

 oriflce and a rugose reflexedlimb. Rich woods, from Southern Illinois south- 

 ward. June. 



ORDER 88. NYCTAGINACEJE. (FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY.) 



Herbs (or in (he tropics often shrubs or trees'), with mostly opposite and en- 

 tire leaves, stems tumid at the joints, a delicate tubular or funnel-far)// 

 which is colored like a corolla, its persistent base constricted above the 1- 

 l-seedcd ovary, and indurated into a sort of nut-like pericarp ; 

 1 -several, slender, and hypogynous; the emlri/o coiled around ,'/ 

 jiKdti/ albumen, irilh broad foliaceous cotyledons. Represented in our g'-r- 

 clrns by the common FOUR-O'CLOCK, or MAUVKL OF Pi:i:r (Miral>ilis 

 Julap;v), in which the calyx is commonly mistaken for a corolla bi'-;u^e 

 the cup-like involucre of each flower exactly imitates a calyx ; and by a 

 single 



