2 NYCTAGINACE.K. Mimbllis. 



Tribk tit. ACT.EISANTHE;E. Tnvolucre only of 2 or 3 small bractlets to each flower, or 

 wholly wanting : Btigma smooth, peltate or caji-slmped. 



4. Boerhaavia. Tntlorescence usually paniculate or spicato. Fruit 5-anglcd. 



Tribe TV. liOUOAINVIT.T.EiT^v. Involucral bracts dilated, mostly solitary on the pedicel of 

 each llower. 



5. Hermidium. Perianth tul.ular'campanulate. Fruit smootii, not ribbed nor angled. 



1. MIRABILIS, Linn. 1m)UU-o'clock. 



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

 fruit, 1 - 12-flowered. Perianth tubular or more or less broadly funnelforni, with a 

 spreading liiub. Stamens usually 5, as long as the perianth ; hlaiuents uniteil 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 

 syjecies also from South America and common in cultivation ^1"^ Four-o'clock or Marvel-of-I*eru, 

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

 frequently are fertilized in the bud, in wliich case the peiianth remains small without opening. 



§ 1. Flowers o or more in flie involucre, la rtje, with hnuj-tnlular or funnelforni 

 perianth. — Quamoclidion, Choisy. 



1. M. multiflora, Ciray. Stout, spreading, roughish puberulent or nearly gla- 

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

 often somewhat cordate at base but decnrrcnt u])()n the petiole, acute or shortly 

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

 cles i 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 usually G (5 surrounding 

 a central one), bruadly funnelforni, pale rose-color to purple, with the ^ube somewhat 

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

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

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

 dark lines. — P.ot. Mex. Pound. 173. Oxi/baj>hns multijhrus, Torrey, Ann. Lye, 

 N. York, ii. 237. Ni/daf/inia (?) Torrei/ana, Choisy in DC. Prodr. xiii^ 430. 

 Qua mod /(lion mnltitforinn, Torrey, Am. Journ. Sci. 2 ser. xv. 321. 



Var. pubescens, Watson. Very pubescent throughout. 



A common sp(( ies eastward, ranging from Colorado to the Rio Grande and westward to S. 

 California; San Diego (Clurhuid). The variety is jieculiur to S. Calilornia, from mar Fort 

 Tejon {irallace, Kciiiicili/) to San Diego County, Palmer. A doubtful form occurs in cultivation 

 from Californian seed (Hook. f. Dot. Mag. t. 62()(j), still more glandular-i.ubesc.'cnt, tlie haves 

 broadly ovate, deeply cordate at base and iu)t decurrent u])on the very short petiole, oblu&e 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 Oxybaphiis Frosbclii of ISehr. I'roc. 

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

 description is very defective. 



2. M. Greenei, Watson. Very stout, somewhat glandtdar-puberulent : leaves 

 rather thick, ovate, a(;ute, attenuate to a short stout })etiole, 3 inches long : invo- 

 lucre acutely lobed, 1 to U inches long, 7 - 10-flowered : perianth funnelforni, 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 Ikv. E. L. Greene on mountain-sides about Yreka, Siskiyou County ; June, in 



flower and fruiting. 



