
FOUR-O’CLOCK FAMILY. Nyctaginaceae. 
Sand Puffs This plant is, as a whole, so delicately 
Abronia sélsa tinted and so decorative in form, that it is 
White most attractive, particularly against the 
oie ape sandy soil where it grows, deserving the 
Utah Greek name more than some of its slightly 
awkward sisters. It is about fourteen 
inches tall, with a stoutish, rather straggling, prostrate 
stem, which is pale, pinkish, sticky and fuzzy. The leaves 
have long leaf-stalks and are pale bluish-green, leathery 
and smooth, but fuzzy on the mid-vein of the under side, 
and the flowers are numerous, rather small, in handsome 
roundish clusters, which are about two inches across, with 
a papery, pinkish or yellowish involucre, of about five, 
separate, rounded bracts. The calyx is corolla-like and 
salver-form, with a long, yellowish or greenish tube and 
five lobes, prettily crinkled at the edges. The seed- 
vessel is very curious, resembling a round, yellowish 
sponge, with hooks sticking out of it, and the flowers are 
deliciously sweet-scented. This is sometimes called Snow- 
ball. 
eae ee The coloring of this plant, one of the 
prettiest of its kind, is striking and un- 
bena 
Abrénia villdsa usual, and makes it very conspicuous, 
Pinkish-lilac growing in the sand near the sea or in the 
Seen desert. The thickish leaves are light 
Ariz., Cal., Utah ; : : 
P *" bluish-green and the thick stem, which 
straggles rather awkwardly over the ground, is a peculiar 
shade of pink and sticky and hairy, as are also the in- 
volucres. The small delicate flowers are an odd tint of 
pinkish-lilac, light but vivid, in striking contrast to the 
coloring of stems and foliage, and form very pretty clusters, 
with an involucre of five to fifteen papery bracts. They 
are very fragrant and look much like garden Verbenas, so 
the name is not so unhappy as some. A. umbelldta has 
slender stems and almost smooth leaves, sometimes with 
wavy margins, about an inch long, narrowed at base to a 
slender leaf-stalk, and deep-pink flowers. It is commonall 
along the California coast and blooms in the summer and 
autumn. A. maritima is found from Santa Barbara to 
San Diego and is a very stout, coarse, sticky plant, with 
small, deep-magenta flowers. 
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