360 NYCTAGINACELE. (POUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY.) 



2. ARISTOLOCHIA, Tourn. BIRTHWORT. 



Calyx tubulai-, 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 - 6-lobed or angled stigma. Pod naked, 6-valved. 

 Seeds flat. 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 : anthers in pairs (making 4 cells in a row under each of the 3 truncate 

 lobes of the stigma) : low herbs. 



1. A. Serpentaria, 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. sagittfita, MuhL, A. hir- 

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

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

 stimulant root is well known in medicine. 



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

 limb obscurely 3-lobed : antliers in pairs under each of the 3 short and thick lobes of 

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

 axillary buds. 



2. A. Sipho, L'Her. (PIPE- VINE. DUTCHMAN'S PIPE.) Glabrous; 

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

 ing bract; calyx (!' 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. tOIUC'lltOSa, Sims. Downy or soft-hairy ; leaves round-heart-shaped, 

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

 orifice and a rugose reflexed limb. Rich woods, from Southern Illinois south- 

 ward. June. 



ORDER 88. NYCTAGINACE^E. (FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY.) 



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

 ire leaves, stems tumid at the joints, a delicate tubular or funnel-form calyx 

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

 ^-seeded ovary, and indurated into a sort of nut-like pericarp ; the stamens 

 1- several, slender, and hypogynous ; the embryo coiled around the outside of 

 mealy albumen, with broad foliaceous cotyledons. Represented in our gar- 

 dens by the common FOUR-O'CLOCK, or MARVEL OF PERU (Mirabilis 

 Jalapa), in which the calyx is commonly mistaken for a corolla because 

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

 single 



