O NYCTAGINACE.E. Mirabilis. 



Tribe HI. ACLEISANTHE.E. Involucre only of 2 or 3 small brattlets to each flower, or 

 wholly wanting : stigma smooth, peltate or cap-shaped. 



4. Boerhaavia. Inflorescence usually paniculate or spicate. Fruit 5-angled. 



Tr.ir.K IV. BOrGAINVILLE.iE. luvolucral bracts dilated, mostly solitary on the pedicel of 

 t-arh flower. 



5. Hermidium. Perianth tubular campanulate. Fruit smooth, not ribbed nor angled. 



1. MIRABILIS, Linn. Fouk-o'clock. 

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

 fruit, 1 - 1 2-ll()wered. Perianth tubular or more or less broadly funnelform, Avith a 

 spreading limb. Stamens usually 5, as long as the perianth ; filaments united 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 

 tlie involucres. 



A genus of 10 or 12 species, of the "Western United States and Mexico, the earliest known 

 species also from South America and (Common in cultivation (the Four-o'clock or Marvel-of-Peru, 

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

 fre(iuently are fertilized in the bud, in which case the perianth remains small without opening. 



§ 1. Flotcers o or more in the invohicre, large, with loiuj-tuhidar or funnelform 

 perianth. — Quamoclidion, Choisy. 



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

 l)rous ; stems 2 or 3 feet long : leaves rather thin, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 

 often somewhat cordate at base but decurrent upon the petiole, acute or shortly 

 acuminate, 1 to 3 inches long, on slender petioles 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 6 (5 surrounding 

 a central one), broadly funnelform, pale rose-color to purple, with the tube somewhat 

 greenish, 1 1 to 2 inches long : stamens 5, as long as the acutely 5-lobed perianth, 

 shorter than the filiform style : fruit ovate-oblong, 3 or 4 lines long, rai'ely nearly 

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

 dark line.s. — Eot. Mex. Bound. 173. Oxi/hophvs midtiflorus, Torrey, Ann. Lye. 

 N. York, ii. 237. Nyctaginia (?) Torreyana, Choisy in DC. Prodr. xiii^ 430. 

 Qnamoclith'on vivlfifforiim, Torrey, Am. Journ. Sci. 2 ser. xv. 321. 



Var. pubescens, Watson. Very pubescent throughout. 



A coniiiKin spnics eastward, ranging from Colorado to the Rio Grande and westward to S. 

 California ; San Diego (Cleveland). The variety is peculiar to S. California, from near Fort 

 Tejon {Ji'idlnci', A'niurrli/) to San Diego County, Palmer. A doubtful form occurs in cultivation 

 from Californiiui seed (Hook. f. But. Mag. t. 6266), still more glandular-pubescent, the leaves 

 broadly ovate, deei)ly cordate at base and not decurrent upon the very short petiole, obtuse or 

 acutish : lobes of the invohicre acutish, and those of the perianth refuse : fruit not at all furrowed 

 at base, sometimes very obscurely lined. It is perhaps the Oxyhaphus Frabelii of Ikdir. Proc. 

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

 description is very defective. 



2. M. G-reenei, "Watson. Very stout, somewhat glandular-puberulent : leaves 

 rather thick, ovate, acute, attenuate to a short .stout petiole, 3 inches long: invo- 

 lucre acutfly lubed, 1 to 1^ inches long, 7 - 10-flowered : perianth funnelform, 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 licv. E. L. Greene on mountain -sides about Yreka, Siskiyou County ; June, in 

 flower and fruiting. 



