130 NYCTAGINACEAE. 



entire, truncate or cordate at the base, the petioles about one half as long as 

 the blades; involucres campanulate, 7-8 mm. high, pubescent, 1-flowered, their 

 lobes ovate-lanceolate, twice as long as the tube, acute, bristle-tipped; calyx 

 trumpet-shaped, 3-5 cm. long, deep red to purple or white, often more or less 

 blotched, the edge notched; stamens exserted; fruit ovoid, black, 8-10 mm. 

 long, wrinkled-tuberculate, 5-ribbed. 



Waste grounds, spontaneous after cultivation, New Providence, Eleuthera and 

 Fortune Island : — Bermuda : Florida ; ttie West Indies ; continental tropical Amer- 

 ica north through Mexico. Four-o'clock. 



2. BOERHAAVEA L. Sp. PI. 3. 1753. 



Slender herbs with forking stems and branches, opposite leaves, and small 

 minutely bracted flowers on jointed pedicels. Calyx campanulate to funnel- 

 form, its limb 5-lobed. Stamens 1-5, exserted, the slender filaments united at 

 the base. Ovary oblique; style filiform; stigma peltate. Fruit obovoid or 

 clavate, 5-angled or 5-ribbed. [In honor of Hermann Boerhaave, 1668-1738, 

 a celebrated Dutch scientist.] About 50 species, natives of warm and tropical 

 regions. Type species: Boerliaavea diffusa L. 



Fruit with viscid glands. \. B. coccinea. 



Fruit not glandular. 2. B. erecta. 



1. Boerhaavea coccinea M^ll. Gard. Diet. No. 8. 1768. 



Boerhaavea paniculata Eich. Act. Soc. Hist. Xat. Paris 1: 105. 1792. 

 Boerhaavia hirsuta Willd. Sp. PI. 1: 20. 1797. 



Perennial by somewhat fleshy roots; stems 2-10 dm. long, slender, 

 branched, procumbent or ascending, usually pubescent, at least below, the 

 branches glabrous or puberulent. Leaves rhombic-ovate to oblong or nearly 

 orbicular, 2-6.5 cm. long, rounded, obtuse or rarely acute at the apex, rounded 

 or subcordate at the base, slender-petioled, entire or undulate; panicle slender, 

 often 3 dm. long, its branches nearly filiform, glabrous or puberulent; flowers 

 reddish, 2 mm. broad, nearly sessile in small glomerules of 2-several; fruit 

 obovoid, 2.5-4 mm. long, 5-grooved, glandular. 



Roadsides and waste places. North Bimini, Andros, New Providence, Great 

 Guana Cay, Eleuthera, Cat Island, Fortune Island and Inagua : — Florida : West 

 Indies ; Mexico through Central America to northern South America ; tropical 

 Africa. Viscid Hog-weed. 



2, Boerhaavea erecta L. Sp. PI. 3. 1753. 



Stem erect or ascending, branched; leaves ovate to deltoid-ovate, some- 

 times inequilateral, 2-8 cm. long, apiculate, repand or undulate, acute to cordate 

 at the base, minutely black-dotted on the lower whitish surface, the petioles 

 usually about one half as long as the blades or longer; peduncles filiform; 

 flowers 2-6 in a cluster; calyx white to purple, its tube glabrous, the limb 

 campanulate, 1-1.5 mm. long, sparingly pubescent; stamens exserted; fruit 

 obpyramidal, 3.5-4 mm. long, 5-angled, the grooves transversely wrinkled, the 

 top flat. 



Waste grounds. New Providence : — southern United States ; Bermuda : New 

 Mexico and California to Peru and Brazil ; the West Indies. Smooth Hog-weed. 



3. COMMICAHPUS Standley, Contr. Nat. Herb. 12: 373. 1909. 



Perennial herbs, with long forking stems, opposite entire petioled mostly 

 cordate leaves, and small perfect umbellate flowers. Calyx short-funnelform. 



