THE FOUR O'CLOCK FAMILY 



NYCTAGINACE^ Lindley 



HIS family, famiKarly illustrated by the Four O'clock of our gardens, is 

 mainly composed of herbaceous plants, but there are a few genera of 

 trees and shrubs in tropical regions. In all there are some 17 genera 

 and 250 species or more, widely distributed, but most abundant in tem- 

 perate and tropical America. The flowers are quite large and showy, or very in- 

 conspicuous; the calyx is usually coroUa-like, 4-toothed or 5-toothed, or sometimes 

 lobed; there is no corolla; the stamens are hypogynous, with filiform filaments and 

 2-celled anthers; the ovary is enclosed by the tube of the calyx, i -celled, containing 

 I ovule. The fruit is either dry or somewhat fleshy, ribbed and grooved. 

 Only the following genus is represented in our arborescent flora. 



BLOLLY 



GENUS TORRUBIA VELLOZO 



Species Torrnbia longifolia (Heimerl) Britten 



Pisonia discolor longifolia HeimerL Pisonia longifolia Sargent 



ORRUBIA comprises some 15 species of trees and shrubs, natives of 

 tropical America. 



The Blolly occurs in southern Florida, 

 on the Bahama islands and in Cuba, grow- 

 ing usually within the influence of salt water, though 

 also in 'hammocks a few miles inland, and reaches a 

 maximum height of about 16 meters, with a trunk up 

 to 5 dm. in diameter, usually much smaller, however, 

 and often shrubby. It has been confused with Torrvbia 

 ohtusata (Jacquin) Britton, a related species with much 

 larger and thicker leaves, which grows on the Bahama 

 islands. 



Its thin brown bark is scaly, its smooth young twigs 

 yellowish, turning gray. The smooth, mostly opposite 

 leaves are pbovate to oblanceolate, rather thick, rounded 

 or occasionally notched at the apex, narrowed to a ^'°- ^^^' ~ ° ^'^■ 



wedge-shaped base, 2 to 5 cm. long, the midvein prominent, the lateral veins ob- 



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