860 NYCTAGINACELE. (FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY.) 



2. ARISTOL.6CHIA, Tourn. BIRTHWORT. 



Calyx tubular, 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 Ills, 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. sagitt&ta, 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 : anthers in pairs under each of the 3 short and thick lobes of 

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

 axillary buds. 



2. A. Slpho, 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. tOHientOSa, 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 reflexedlimb. Rich woods, from Southern Illinois south- 

 ward. June. 



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



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

 tire 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 

 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 



