1912] Setchell: Studies in Nicotiana 21 



noctiflora, it may well be doubted whether it is identical with 



the plant described under this name by W. J. Hooker (loc. cit.). 



So far as flower and inflorescence is concerned, Hooker's plant 



seems to be nearer to N. acuminata. Hooker's plant is credited 



as being perennial, ours is annual. The flowers open at about 



_9_ 

 7:30 p.m. and close by 8 a.m They are odorless. U. C. B. G. 07 



is shown in plate 23. 



Nicotiana longifiora Cav. 



The present species is fairly well known in botanical gardens 

 and as a weed in warmer countries. It has appeared in the 

 eastern United States as a ballast weed. It has been grown in 

 the U. C. B. G. under several numbers, from as many different 



100 



sources. No. 05 has been the principal cultivation and the 



plant (in daytime with its flowers closed) is well represented 



in the photograph reproduced in plate 24. One characteristic 



of N. longifiora is very striking in contrast with other species of 



Nicotiana cultivated in the U. C. B. G. and that is, the forming 



of a compact rosette of large, coarse leaves which lie flat on the 



ground and persist for a considerable time before the flowering 



stems arise from it. The rosette persists for most of the first 



year and is well represented in the figure just quoted. The 



flowering stems are spreading, bearing narrower leaves than the 



radical ones, and the loose panicle bears somewhat distant flowers 



with long, slender, bluish-purple corollas. 



The radical leaves are broadly lanceolate or oblanceolate, 



coarsely bullate and rugose above, undulate, smooth but with 



coarse spine-like glandular hairs on surface and margins. The 



tube of the corolla is four to six times as long as the calyx and 



proportionally slender. The broad spreading limb is deeply 



divided into five moderately broad blunt-pointed lobes, which 



are somewhat recurved. The flowers open only at night. Occa- 



]J)0 

 sionally a 3-celled capsule is found. In the U. C. B. G., No. 05 



has persisted as long as three years, but no more. It usually 



lives for two years, at least. 



]_04 



U. C. B. G. 08 seems to be the N. longifiora var. acutiflora 



