- 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 291 
ably and singularly colored. The same plant and even 
the same branch produces very different flowers, some- 
times of one color only, and others striped or parti-color- 
ed. In some of the rarer varieties, that are distinguished 
by the elongated tube of the flower, are recognized the 
traits of UM. longiflora. These produce but very few 
seeds, and yet they give us too perfectly distinct kinds, 
which are very remarkable, and, perhaps, an exceptional 
example of the fruitful products obtained by hybridization. 
Among other names for this admirable flower, it is known 
as World’s Wonder, Evening Beauty, Afternoon Ladies, 
and Four-o’clock, because the flowers open about that 
time in the afternoon. The French call it Belle de nuit, 
or the Beauty of the Night. The flowers continue 
through the night and perish before noon, the next day, 
if very warm. This is an old-fashioned border-plant, but 
none the less beautiful on that account. If planted three 
feet apart, they will grow into quite a bush before cold 
weather; but, if huddled together, as we often see them, 
into a small space, they loose half their beauty. 
— 
MOMORDICA. 
{From mordeo, to bite; its seeds having the appearance of having been bit- 
ten.] 
Momérdica Balsamina, or Balsam Apple, is cultivated 
as an object of curiosity, and for its fruit, which is some- 
times used for curing wounds. It has fleshy, ovate fruit, 
remotely tubercled in longitudinal rows; smooth in the 
other parts; red when ripe, bursting irregularly, and dis- 
persing the seeds with a spring. 
The fruit is used in Syria for the same purpose that it 
is here. It is cut open when unripe, and infused in sweet 
oil, and exposed to the sun for some days, until the oil has 
become red. This, dropped on cotton, is applied to a 
