

i 
FOUR-O’CLOCK FAMILY. Nyctaginaceae. 
This is very common in southern 
California Four- California and forms quite large, low 
*clock : - 
ern clumps cf rather yellowish green, sticky 
Califérnica. and hairy foliage, sprinkled with numbers 
(Mirabilis) of bright little flowers, opening in the 
Magenta, pink afternoon. The base is woody and the 
Spring, summer ; 
California weak, hairy stems are supported on bushes, 
as if climbing over them. The leaves 
are rather thick, about an inch long, and the flowers are 
open bell-shaped, about three-quarters of an inch across, 
usually magenta, but often pink of various shades, some- 
times quite pale in tint with long stamens drooping to one 
side, and the involucre is often purplish and very hairy and 
sticky. The effect at a distance is gay and attractive, 
though the plant is not quite so pretty close by. 
This has a straggling, hairy, sticky 
Hesperonia 4 od 
glutinosa var. stem, over a foot long, and thickish, dull- 
gracilis green leaves, hairy and sticky. The 
bbs pinkish = Aowers are about half an inch long, white 
ee ee or tinged with pink, and are rather delicate 
and pretty, though the plant is not es- 
pecially attractive. It blooms at night, the flowers 
gradually closing with the morning sun. This variety is 
common in the southern part of the state, in mountain 
canyons, and Hesperonia glutinosa is common in the 
north. 
There are several kinds of Abronia, all American, with 
branching, usually sticky-hairy stems, thick, toothless 
leaves, with leaf-stalks, in pairs and one of each pair 
somewhat larger than the other. The flowers are more 
or less salver-form, with five lobes, a threadlike style, and 
from three to five, unequal stamens, on the tube of the 
perianth and not protruding fromit. They are numerous 
and in clusters, with involucres, on long flower-stalks, 
from the angles of the leaves. The fruit is winged. The 
name is from the Greek meaning graceful, but most of these 
plants are rather awkward in their manner of growth. 
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