620 MISC. PUBLICATION 4 2 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



also in terminal leafy racemes or narrow panicles; petals 6; stamens 

 10 to 12. 



Several exotic species are cultivated as ornamentals, the best- 

 known one being C. ignea, the cigarflower, with a scarlet, black-and- 

 white-tipped calyx. 



1. Cuphea wrightii A. Gray, PL Wright. 2: 56. 1853. 



Parsonsia wrightii Kearney, N. Y. Acad. Sci. Trans. 14: 37. 

 1894. 



Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 4,500 to 6,000 feet, rich 

 soil of canyons, etc., August to September. Southern Arizona to 

 Panama. 



A form with small very narrow petals, these grayish with very short 

 hairs, is var. 7iematopetala Bacigalupi. This was based on a collection 

 near Bowie, Cochise County (Jones in 1884), and was collected by 

 Jones also in the Huachuca Mountains. 



88. ONAGRACEAE. Evening-primrose family 



Contributed by Philip A. Munz 



Herbs or rarely shrubs, with simple, alternate or opposite leaves; 

 stipules none; flowers perfect, axillary or in terminal racemes, the 

 parts mostly in 2's or in 4's; hypanthium adnate to the ovary and 

 usually prolonged beyond it ; sepals 4 (sometimes 2 or 5) ; petals 4 

 (sometimes 2 or 5), inserted at summit of the hypanthium; stamens 

 as many or twice as many as the petals, borne at the summit of the 

 hypanthium; ovary inferior, 4- (sometimes 2- or 5-) celled; style 1; 

 stigma 4 -lob ed, capitate, or discoid; fruit a capsule, rarely nutlike. 



This family is notable for the beauty of the flowers in many of the 

 genera. Numerous species of Fuchsia, Zauschneria, Clarkia, Godetia, 

 and Oenothera are highly prized as cultivated ornamentals. The 

 evening-primroses with large white flowers (Oenothera deltoides, etc.) 

 are among the handsomest of the desert plants, and in favorable 

 springs make a glorious display, often growing in great profusion 

 with sandverbena (Abronia) . 



Key to the genera 



1. Sepals persistent, divided down to the ovary (2). 



2. Sepals 5; petals 5, about 1 cm. long 1. Jtjssiaea. 



2. Sepals 4 ; petals 4 and minute, or lacking 2. Ludwigia. 



1. Sepals deciduous after flowering (3). 



3. Flowers 2-merous; fruit indehiscent, obovoid, usually with hooked hairs. 



10. Circaea. 

 3. Flowers 4-merous (4). 



4. Seeds with tufts of hairs (coma) at one end (5). 



5. Hypanthium 2 to 3 cm. long, funnelform, with a transverse row of 

 scales within about midway of its length; flowers scarlet. 



3. Zauschneria. 



5. Hypanthium less than 1 cm. long, without scales within, sometimes 



lacking; flowers not scarlet 4. Epilobium. 



4. Seeds without coma (6). 



6. Fruit nutlike, indehiscent 9. Gaura. 



6. Fruit a capsule, dehiscent (7). 



7. Ovary 2-celled; hypanthium not prolonged beyond the ovary; f owers 



minute; stems with capillary branches 8. Gayophytum. 



7. Ovary 4-celled; hypanthium prolonged beyond the ovary (8). 



8. Anthers usually versatile, attached near the middle; petals yellow 

 or white, rarely red except on aging 7. Oenothera. 



