FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY. Nyctaginaucac. 



FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY. Nyctaginaceac. 



A rather large family, widely distributed, most abun- 

 dant in America. Ours are herbs, often succulent, with 

 no stipules; stems often fragile, swollen at the joints; 

 leaves opposite, usually toothless, often unequal; flowers 

 perfect, with no petals, but the calyx colored like a corolla, 

 with four or five lobes or teeth, and more or less funnel- 

 shaped; one or several flowers in a cluster with an in- 

 volucre; stamens three to five, with slender filaments; 

 style one, with a round-top stigma; the green base of the 

 calyx drawn down around the ovary, making it appear 

 inferior, and hardening into a nutlike fruit ; seeds sometimes 

 winged. 



Quamoclidions have the odd habit of opening in the 

 afternoon, hence the common name, Four-o'clock. The 

 flowers usually have five stamens, and are grouped several 

 together in a cluster, which emerges from an involucre 

 so much resembling a calyx that it is often mistaken for one. 

 The effect is of the flowers having clubbed together and 

 made one calyx do for the lot. The fruit is hard, smooth, 

 and roundish. 



Four-o'clock The leaves of this low, stout, and spread- 



QuamocUdion ing perennial are an inch or two long, light 

 multifldrum. bluish-green, somewhat heart-shaped, 



(Mirabilis) rather rough and coarse, and the stems 



Pink, purple _. . ,. 



Spring are ften hairy and sticky. The foliage 



Southwest and contrasts strikingly in color with the 

 Col. gaudy pink or magenta flowers, an inch 



across and slightly sweet-scented, the shape of Morning- 

 glories and resembling them, as they have the same stripes 

 of deeper color. The long stamens droop to one side, the 

 pistil is long and purple and the bell-shaped involucre 

 contains about six flowers. These plants are conspicuous 

 and quite handsome. They grow on the plateau in the 

 Grand Canyon. 



There are several kinds of Hesperonia, much like Quamo- 

 clidion, but the bell-shaped involucre contains only one 

 flower, which is also bell-shaped, usually with five separate 

 stamens. The fruit is roundish, not angled or ribbed, 

 usually smooth. 



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