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



2. ARISTOIiOCHIA, Tourn. BIRTHWORT. 



Calyx tubular ; the tube 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 very 

 flat. Twining, climbing, or sometimes upright perennial herbs or shrubs, with 

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

 from reputed medicinal properties.) 



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

 3-lobed : anthers contiguous in pairs ( making 4 cells in a row under each of the 

 three truncate lobes of the stigma) : low herbs. 



1. A. Serpentria, L. (VIRGINIA SNAKEROOT.) Stems (8' -15' high) 

 branched at the base, putfescent ; 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. sagittata, MuhL, A. hastata, 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: anthers contiguous in pairs under each of the 3 short and 

 thick lobes of the stigma : twining shrubs ; flowers from one or two of the super- 

 posed accessory axillary buds. 



2. A. Sipho, L'Her. (PiPE-ViNE. DUTCHMAN'S PIPE.) Nearly gla- 

 brous; leaves round-kidney-shaped; peduncles with a clasping bract; calyx (!' 

 long) with a brown-purple abrupt, fiat 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. tomentbsa, Sims. Downy or soft-hairy; leaves round-heart-shaped, 

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

 and a rugose reflexed limb. Rich woods, from S. Illinois southward. June. 



ORDER 83. NYCTAOINACE^E. (FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY.) 



Herbs (or in the tropics often shrubs or trees), with mostly opposite and 

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

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

 l-celled l-seeded ovary, and indurated into a sort of nut-like pericarp ; the 

 stamens few, slender, and hypogynous ; the embryo coiled around the out- 

 side of mealy albumen, with broad foliaceous cotyledons. Represented in 

 our gardens by the FOUR-O'CLOCK, or MARVEL OF PERU (MIRABILIS 

 JALAPA), in which the calyx is commonly mistaken for a corolla, the cup- 

 like involucre of each flower exactly imitating a calyx ; and by a single 



1. OXYBAPHUS, Vahl. OXYBAPHUS. 



Flowers 1 - 5 in the same 5-lobed membranaceous broad and open involucre, 

 which enlarges and is thin and reticulated in fruit. Calyx with a very short 



