NYCTAGINACEAE 191 



Several shrubs and herbaceous plants of this family 

 are used for ornamental purposes, viz. Bougainvillea spec- 

 tabilis, with brightly coloured involucral bracts (from 

 Brazil), and two species of Mirabilis, v'yl. M. Jalapa and 

 M. longiflora (Marvel of Peru, Four o'clock) with delicately 

 tinted flowers, which open at night only and are withered 

 the next morning (from South America). 



KEY TO THE GENERA. 



A. Herbaceous, deciduous in winter. Flowers bisexual. 



a. Floral bracts large, connate. Erect herbs, with large tubers. 



1 species (escaped from gardens). Na. T. 



1. Mirabilis L. 



b. Bracts small. Trailing herbs with woody rootstocks. (Plate 47, D.) 



20 species, 5 in S. A. T. Na. No. 



2. Boerhaavia Vaill. 



B. Shrubs. Flowers polygamo-dioecious. 



a. Leaves fascicled. 



1 species, P. spinosum. No. 



3. Phaeoptilum Radlk. 



b. Leaves alternate or opposite. 



30 species, mostly American, 1 in Trop. and S. Afr. 



4. Pisonia L. 



Plate 47. 

 Fam. 16. Polygonaceae. 



A. Polygonum serrulatum Lagasca I. Short piece of plant with butterfly, Pieris 

 mesentina. 2. Margin of leaf. 30/1. 



E. Emex australis Steinh. Small piece of flowering plant, with fruits. 



Fam. 19. Nyctaginaceae. 



D. Boerhaavia pentandra Burch. [Syn. B. Burchellii Choisy] Small piece of 

 flowering shoot and apex of rootstock. 



(Note. The colour of the flower is in nature a purplish magenta, but that shade 

 offers great difficulties to the artist as well as the lithographer.) 



Fam. 20. Phytolaccaceae. 



B. Phytolacca americana L. [Syn. Ph. decandra L.] 1. Flowering twig. 2. Flower. 6/1. 

 3. Fruiting spike. 4. Long, section of seed, showing the central perisperm. 4/1. 



C. Phytolacca heptandra Retz. [Syn. Ph. stricta Hoffm.], with ripe fruit (nutlets), 

 from the Transkei. Both species possess swollen roots like sweet potatoes, but they 

 are poisonous. 



