Nyctaginacece Mirabilis. 387 



striped or blotched with two or more of these colours. West 

 Indies. 



M. longiflora, a Mexican species, is remarkable for its 

 long tubular fragrant viscid flowers, which vary in colour from 

 white and pink to violet. There are hybrid varieties between 

 this and the preceding. M. dichotoma is called Four-o'clock 

 Flower in the West Indies, from the time at which its flowers 

 commonly expand. 



ORDER XCI. PHYTOLACCACE^E. 



Herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate, entire, exstipulate, com- 

 monly furnished with transparent dots. Flowers racemose, 

 bisexual. Perianth inferior, sometimes coloured, frequently 

 furnished with bracts at its base, giving it the appearance of a 

 corolla ; segments 4 or 5, free or slightly united. Stamens 

 indefinite, or if of the same number as the perianth-segments 

 alternate with them. Fruit baccate or dry, composed of a 

 solitary carpel or several distinct or more or less united, each 

 carpel 1 -seeded. A small order comprising about eighty species 

 divided into twenty genera, mostly natives of the warmer parts 

 of America. 



1. PHYTOLlCCA. 



Tall branching rapid-growing robust perennials, shrubs or 

 small trees. Perianth of 5 or 6 petaloid or green segments. 

 Stamens 5 to 30. Fruit fleshy and juicy, composed of 5 to 12 

 united carpels. There are about ten species, one or two of 

 which are widely dispersed in the tropics. The generic name 

 is a compound of the Greek word <t>roi/, a plant, and the French 

 word lac, lake, in reference to the crimson juice of the fruit. 



1. Ph. decdndra. Poke -weed, Pigeon -berry, Eed-ink 

 Plant. This is a tall glabrous plant from 5 to 10 feet high 

 with large ovate petiolate leaves and long extra-axillary 

 racemes of white flowers followed by succulent purple berries. 

 Native of North America, and now naturalised in the South of 

 Europe, and many other countries. 



2. Ph. icosdndra. A dwarfer species having the stems tinged 

 with red, the flowers smaller, in very slender racemes, and 

 usually more than ten stamens. A native of various parts of 

 South America, and rather tender in our climate. 



Ercilla spicdta, syn. Bridgesia spicata, is a Chilian ever- 

 green climbing shrub, in the way of Ivy. 



c c 2 



