NYCTAGINACEAE 195 



nodes square, toothed or fimbriate. Ovary oblong, 1-ovuled. Utricle 

 oblong or ovoid, indehiscent. (Greek "chaff" and "flower.") 



Species 12 in tropical and subtropical countries, 1 or 2 in the Phil- 

 ippines. 



1. A. ASPEEA L. 



A coarse, rambling or erect, distantly branched, annual herb, 0.5 to 2 

 m high. Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic or obovate, 6 to 15 cm long, 

 acuminate, base narrowed, more or less pubescent or nearly glabrous. 

 Spikes rigid, elongated, 10 to 50 cm long. Flowers green, 5 mm long, 

 the stamens and staminodes pale-purplish, the staminodes fimbriate. Buds 

 ascending, flowers spreading, immediately after flowering reflexed and 

 closely appressed to the rachis. - ' 



In waste places, fl. all the year; throughout the Philippines, certainly 

 introduced. Most tropical countries. 



45. NYCTAGINACEAE (Pisonia oe Maluco Family) 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, or sometimes' woody spiny vines. Leaves simple, 

 opposite or alternate, entire, exstipulate. Inflorescence various, usually' of 

 terminal or axillary corymbs or cymes, the flowers often involucrate. 

 Flowers perfect or unisexual. Calyx-tube long or Short, cylindric or funnel- 

 shaped, persistent and enveloping the fruit, the limb 3- to 10-toothed or 

 lobed, sometimes petal- like. Petals none. Stamens 1 to many, hypogynous, 

 the filaments usually unequal. Ovary superior, free, 1-celled; ovule 1; 

 stigma simple or multifid. Fruit usually membranaceous, sometimes hard, 

 usually enclosed in the more or less hardened, coriaceous or fleshy perianth- 

 tube. 



Genera 19, species about 175, chiefly in tropical America, 4 genera and 

 about 10 species in the Philippines. 



1. Glabrous unamied shrubs or trees or more or less spiny woody vines. 



2. Flowers small, without involucres, the bracts minute 1. Pisofda 



2. flowers medium, inserted on the midribs of the large, colored, per- 

 sistent, showy bracts 2. Bougainvillea. 



1. Herbs. 



2. Flowers large, showy, involucrate -•* 3. Mirabilis 



2. Flowers very small, bracteolate 4. Boerhdavia 



1. PISONIA LinnajBus 



Erect unarmed shrubs or trees or scandent and armed with curved 

 spines. Leaves opposite or alternate, entire. Flowers in corymbose 

 axillary and terminal cymes,^ usually dioecious, bracteolate. Perianth 5- 

 to 10-toothed, of the male flowers funnel-shaped, of the female ones tubular. 

 Stamens 6 to 10, exserted. Ovary sessile, oblique. Fruit oblong, muricate 

 or angled, tland«lar. (In honor of W. Piso, an early writer on the 

 medicinal plants of Brazil.) 



Species about 60, tropical, few in Africa, about 6 in the Philippines. 



A scandent shrub, armed with curved spines; leaves 6 to 10 cm long. 



1. P. aduleata 



An erect unarmed tree, the leaves very pale-green,, 12 to 25 cm long. 



2. P. alba 



