FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY. Nyctaginaceae. 



California Four- 

 o'clock 



Hesperonia 

 Calif or nica. 

 (Mirabilis) 

 Magenta, pink 

 Spring, summer 

 California 



This is very common in southern 

 California and forms quite large, low 

 clumps cf rather yellowish green, sticky 

 and hairy foliage, sprinkled with numbers 

 of bright little flowers, opening in the 

 afternoon. The base is woody and the 

 weak, hairy stems are supported on bushes, 

 as if climbing over them. The leaves 

 are rather thick, about an inch long, and the flowers are 

 open bell-shaped, about three-quarters of an inch across, 

 usually magenta, but often pink of various shades, some- 

 times quite pale in tint with long stamens drooping to one 

 side, and the involucre is often purplish and very hairy and 

 sticky. The effect at a distance is gay and attractive, 

 though the plant is not quite so pretty close by. 



This has a straggling, hairy, sticky 

 stem, over a foot long, and thickish, dull- 

 green leaves, hairy and sticky. The 

 flowers are about half an inch long, white 

 or tinged with pink, and are rather delicate 

 and pretty, though the plant is not es- 

 pecially attractive. It blooms at night, the flowers 

 gradually closing with the morning sun. This variety is 

 common in the southern part of the state, in mountain 

 canyons, and Hesperonia glutinosa is common in the 

 north. 



There are several kinds of Abronia, all American, with 

 branching, usually sticky-hairy stems, thick, toothless 

 leaves, with leaf-stalks, in pairs and one of each pair 

 somewhat larger than the other. The flowers are more 

 or less salver-form, with five lobes, a threadlike style, and 

 from three to five, unequal stamens, on the tube of the 

 perianth and not protruding from it. They are numerous 

 and in clusters, with involucres, on long flower-stall 

 from the angles of the leaves. The fruit is winged, 

 name is from the Greek meaning graceful, but most of th 

 plants are rather awkward in their manner of growth. 



Hesperonia 

 glutinosa var. 

 grdcilis 



White, pinkish 

 Spring 

 Arizona 



I O2 



