NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



floral envelope, green, analogous to a calyx, with five divisions more 

 or less deep quincuncially imbricated, or almost valvate. More inter- 

 nally is found a second coloured 1 petaloid envelope, with a tube more 

 or less elongated according to the species, dilated at the base into a kind 



Mirabilis Jalapa. 



Fig. 3. 



Flower. 



Fig. 4. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 5. 



Base of the flower, lon- 

 gitudinal section (f). 



of sac, and spreading out above into a funnel-shaped limb, of which 

 the five divisions are deeply induplicate-contorted. 2 The androceum 

 is formed of five stamens, alternating with the divisions of the inner 

 envelope. They are generally of unequal length, each composed of 

 a filament, free in all its upper portion, surmounted by a bilocular 

 introrse anther, with two cells dehiscing by longitudinal submarginal 

 clefts. 3 Below, these filaments sometimes adhere to the tube of the 

 perianth, and, quite at their base, unite into a short thick tube, fleshy 

 in certain species, and more or less urceolate and glandular. 4 This 



t. 17-19. — Choisy, in DC. Prodr., xiii. sect. ii. 

 Ail . — Pater, Organog., 297. — Admirabilis 

 Clus., Hist., ii. 87. — Nyctage V. Rot., Ltigd., 

 417. — Jalapa T., Inst., 129, t. 50. — Adans., 

 Fam. des PL, ii. 265. — Nyctago J., Gen., 90; 

 in Ann. Mas., ii. 274 (inch : Acleisanthes A. 

 Geat, Qiiamoclidion Cnois.). 



1 White, pink, violet purple yellowish, or 

 spotted with these different colours. 



2 The lohes, properly speaking, are hut 

 slightly prominent. Their midrib corresponds 

 to the five projecting ribs found all along the 

 perianth, and ending in a more or less acute 

 little point. It is between these apices that the 



limb expands into five petaloid laminae, which 

 are reduplicate-contorted in the bud (often 

 wrongly described as lobes of the calyx) while 

 the real body of the petal is valvate. 



3 The pollen-grains are large and spherical. 

 Their outer coat is " firm, punctate with many 

 pores" (H. Moiil, in Ann. Sc. Nat., se'r. 2, iii. 

 313). " Pollen gramdo&um luteum " (Chois., 

 Prodr., 426). 



4 Often described, for this reason (but 

 wrongly), as a disc, this organ is quite inde- 

 pendent of the hypogynous disc, which is repre- 

 sented in several species by a slight thickening 

 of the base of the ovary itself. 



r 



