46 



Nyctaginaceae. 



BOUGAINVILLEA. 



(Family Nyctaginaceae). 



Scrambling shrubs, often climb- 

 ing to considerable heights where 

 hardy: deciduous. Shoots moder- 

 ate, terete becoming irregularly 

 angular or ridged when dry: pith 

 minute, indistinct. Buds super- 

 posed, the upper developing into 

 a curved spine, the lower rather 

 small, ovoid or oblong, hairy, with 

 2 exposed scales. Leaf-scars al- 

 ternate, broadly crescent-shaped 

 to nearly round, much raised: 

 bundle-traces about 5, very indis- 

 tinct: stipule-scars lacking. 



Bougainvilleas, which produce 

 thick almost tree-like short basal 

 trunks in tropical countries, form 

 brilliant covers for pergolas, walls 

 or even houses where they can be 

 used in the open, the showy bracts 

 that surround their rather in- 

 conspicuous flowers ranging from magenta to terra-cotta. 



In common with other woody members of their family, 

 they produce several zones of woody bundles between the pith 

 and cortex of the stem, these occurring in a mass of conjunc- 

 tive tissue as it has been called. The result is an appearance 

 somewhat like that of a monocotyledonous or "endogenous" 

 stem, in cross section. The literature of this, and of com- 

 parable anatomical facts for other families, has been assem- 

 bled in Solereder's compendious Systematic Anatomy of the 

 Dicotyledons. 



Very hairy, scrambling. B. spectabilis. 



Glabrate, more bushy. (1). B. glabra. 



