NYCTAGINACEÆ. 13 
flower in the centre of three bracts.  Bowgainvillea consists of shrubs, 
often sarmentose and thorny,'with simple, alternate exstipulate leaves. 
Half a dozen species* have been described, all natives of the warm 
regions of South America. 
B. px Jussrev’ established an order Ja/ape in which he placed 
with Pisonia, Boerhaavia and Mirabilis all the Plumbaginee and 
Amarantheæ then known. Apaxsox‘ reduced the family of the Jalaps 
to the above three genera. He only retained besides the genus 
Plumbago, of which A. L. pe Jusstev’ made a special order, distinct 
from that of the MNyctaginacee, to which he added the genus 
Bugainvillea of Commerson. Lindley‘ who first gave to this family 
the name of Nyctaginacea, united therein, like EnpiicuEr,’ eleven of 
the genera that we know at present, that is to say, besides those 
already collected by A. L. pr Jussitu, Adronia, Oxybaphus, Alhonia, 
Boldoa (Salpianthus), Reichenbachia,  Colignonia, and  Okenia.* 
Cuorsy who, in 1849, drew up for Prodromus the description of the 
Nyctaginacee, established the new genus Nyctaginia, to which four 
years later A. Gray added Pentacrophys and Selinocarpus.” The 
fourteen genera which we have retained, include about a hundred 
and twenty species, of which nearly a hundred belong to the warm 
regions of the New World, extending from Mexico and the Southern 
United States to Chili and La Plata. There are in Australia 
but three Pisonias and two Boerhaavias which are found in all the 
warm countries on the Globe. 
eight or ten Pisonias which are peculiar to them. 
The warm regions of Oceania have 
There is a rather 

Cienc. Nat., v. 63, t. 40.—J., in Ann, Mus., 
ii. 275.—Enpt., Gen., n. 2007.—Cuols., Prodr., 
436.—Torreya SPRENG., N. Entd., ii. 121 (ex 
Expx., nec ARN., nec RAFIN.) 
1 The simple or 2, 3-forked spines at the 
summit represent, as in Pisonia, axillary branches 
or floriferous peduncles, and may bear here 
and there leaves, coloured bracts, and even 
flowers. 
2 Porr., Dict., viii. 86; Suppl, v. 358 (Zri- 
cycla).—W., Spec., ii. 348.—H. B. K., Nov. 
Gen, et Spec. i. 173, t. 49.—PERS., Enchirid., 
i. 418.— ? Bianco, Fl. Filipp., 307.—GARDN. 
in Hook. Journ., i. 185.—NeEuw., Reis. Bras., 
i. 44, 91, 347; ii, 148. 
3 Ord. Nat. (1759), in À. LZ, Juss. Gen. 
Ixviii. 
4 Fam. des Pl, ii. (1763), 263, fam. xxxvi.— 
Nyctaginee J., in Ann. Mus., ii. 269.—Allio- 
niacee Hor., Prim. Lin, Syst., 68.—Jalapinee 
Batson, Aff. 324. 
5 Gen. (1789), 90, Ord. 3. 
5 Nat. Syst,, ed. 2, 213; Veg. Kingd. (1846), 
506, Ord, 192. 
7 Gen., 310, Ord. 104. 
S Also Tricycla, Reichenbachia, Neca, ascribed 
respectively by us to the genera Bougainvillea, 
Boldoa, and Pisonia, with Ægilithes Bl., which 
is a Serpicula. 
9 Also Quamoclidion, ascribed here to Mira- 
bilis. 
10 Brief Char. of some new Gen, and Spec, 
of Nyctagin., Princ. Coll. in Texas and N, 
Mexico (in Amer. Journ. of Se., sér. 2, 1853.) 
The Author also established in this paper, the 
genus Acleianthus, which we join to Mirabilis 
as the title of a section, 
