
FOUR-O’CLOCK FAMILY. Nyctaginaceac. 
FOUR-O’CLOCK FAMILY. WNyctaginaceae. 
A rather large family, widely distributed, most abun- 
dant in America. Ours are herbs, often succulent, with 
no stipules; stems often fragile, swollen at the joints; 
leaves opposite, usually toothless, often unequal; flowers 
perfect, with no petals, but the calyx colored like a corolla, 
with four or five lobes or teeth, and more or less funnel- 
shaped; one or several flowers in a cluster with an in- 
volucre; stamens three to five, with slender filaments; 
style one, with a round-top stigma; the green base of the 
calyx drawn down around the ovary, making it appear 
inferior, and hardening into a nutlike fruit; seeds sometimes 
winged. 
Quamoclidions have the odd habit of opening in the 
afternoon, hence the common name, Four-o’clock. The 
flowers usually have five stamens, and are grouped several 
together in a cluster, which emerges from an involucre 
so much resembling a calyx that it is often mistaken for one. 
The effect is of the flowers having clubbed together and 
made one calyx do for the lot. The fruit is hard, smooth, 
and roundish. 
Four tinck The leaves of this low, stout, and spread- 
Quamoclidion ing perennial are an inch or two long, light 
multifldrum. bluish-green, somewhat heart-shaped, 
(Atsrabilis) rather rough and coarse, and the stems 
Pink, purple ‘ a i 
eae! are often hairy and sticky. The foliage 
Southwest and contrasts strikingly in color with the 
Col. gaudy pink or magenta flowers, an inch 
across and slightly sweet-scented, the shape of Morning- 
glories and resembling them, as they have the same stripes 
of deeper color. The long stamens droop to one side, the 
pistil is long and purple and the bell-shaped involucre 
contains about six flowers. These plants are conspicuous 
and quite handsome. They grow on the plateau in the 
Grand Canyon. 
There are several kinds of Hesperonia, much like Quamo- 
clidion, but the bell-shaped involucre contains only one 
flower, which is also bell-shaped, usually with five separate 
stamens. The fruit is roundish, not angled or ribbed, 
usually smooth. 
10a 
