NYCTAGINACEJE. 



part of the androceum surrounds a free, superior, unilocular ovary, 

 thickened at the base into a hypogynous disc, 1 surmounted by a long 

 slender style, the capitate apex of which bears a great number of 

 small branches, simple or ramified, 2 each terminated by a little head 

 bearing stigmatic papilla). Towards the base of the ovary-cell, at 

 the bottom of its posterior wall, is found a subbasilar placenta, which 

 supports a single anatropous ovule, suberect, with the micropyle 

 turned downwards and out- 

 wards. 3 The fruit is an MiraUlis Jalapa. 



achene, 4 with a membranous 

 pericarp surmounted by a ves- 

 tige of the style, and closely 

 applied to the seed which it 

 encloses. Around it persists 

 the inflated base of the an- 

 droceum and the dilated 

 portion of the petaloid 

 perianth, which becomes 

 dry, hard, pentagonal (figs. 

 (5, 7), only presenting at 

 its truncated apex a narrow opening at the point where the 

 tubular part is detached after anthesis. Under the very thin 

 seed-coats is found a conduplicate embryo, which envelops by 

 its curved radicle, with inferior apex, and by its two large 

 foliaceous, unequal 5 conduplicate-incumbent cotyledons, a thick 

 farinaceous albumen (figs. 7, 8, 10). The Marvels of Peru are 

 perennial 6 plants of tropical America. Their subterranean portion 

 is tuberous, formed by the tup-root, which is sometimes con- 

 siderably developed. The herbaceous stems di- or trichotomous, 

 with swollen, articulated nodes, bear opposite, simple petiolate exsti- 

 pulate leaves. The axillary or terminal flowers are in cymes or 



Fig. 6. 

 Induviate fruit (f). 



Fig. 7. 

 Longitudinal section, antero- 

 posterior, of induviate 

 fruit. 



1 Often little developed ; its existence is always 

 indisputable in the common Marvel of Peru. 



2 In M. Jalapa they are only ramified, as a 

 rule, into two or three short branches. 



3 It has two coats, and its base is very thick ; 

 it often forms a projection below the micropyle, 

 which seems to play the part of an obturator, 



4 It might almost be called a caryopsis ; how- 

 ever, the membranes which represent, one the 



pericarp, the other the episperm, are separable, 

 although closely applied to each other. 



5 The exterior is larger than the interioi, and 

 this disproportion is very marked in certain 

 other Nyctaginacea. 



6 With us, they are cultivated as annuals, the 

 winter destroying their aerial branches. But 

 if protected from the frost, their fleshy tap-roots 

 can be preserved from one year to another. 



B 



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