OF ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
139 
I. TRIPETALA, Roxb. 
A very showy species -with scarlet flowers having a deep yellow nectary. It is a native of the East Indies 
on tlie mountains of Silhet, and was introduced in 1825. 
I. CRISTATA, Wall. 
The flowers are yellow, with very small purple dots, and the stem purple. The plant is a native of Chinese 
Tartary, and was introduced in 1827. 
I. CALYCINA, Wall. 
A native of Nepal. The flowers, which are very large, are yellow, and netted with purple veins. 
There are several other kinds natives of Nepal, with purple, yellow, or rose-coloured flowers, and one kind 
wliich is fragrant, and most of these have been introduced. 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
NYCTAGINACEiE. 
EssENTUL Character. — Perianth tabular, somewhat coloured, con- 
tracted in the middle ; its limb entire or toothed, plaited in (estivation ; 
becoming indurated at the base. Stamens definite, hjpogynous. 
Anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, with a single erect ovule. Style 
I. Stigma 1. Fruit, a thin utricle, enclosed within the enlarged 
persistent ba^e of the calyx. Seed without its proper integuments, its 
testa being coherent with the utricle ; embryo with foliaceous coty- 
ledons, wrapping round flowery albumen. Radicle inferior. Plumula 
inconspicuous. Leaves opposite, and almost always unequal ; some- 
times alternate. Flowers axillary or terminal, clustered or solitary, 
having an involucre wliich is either common or proper, in one piece 
or in several pieces, sometimes minute Lindl. 
GENUS I. 
MIRABILIS, Lin. THE MARVEL OF PERU. 
Lin. Syat. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic CHiRicxEB.— Calyx inferior. Corolla funnel-formed, superior. Nectary globular, enclosing the germ. (7.tn.) 
1.--MIRABILIS JALAPA, Lin. THE COMMON MARVEL OF PERU. 
Engravings. — Bot. Mag. t. 371 ; and oar Jig. 2, in Plate 24. 
Specific Character. — Flowers clustered together, truncate, erect. — {Lin.) 
Description, &c. — The Marvel of Peru, though generally treated as an annual, is in fact a tuberous-rooted 
perennial, the roots of which may be taken up in winter, like those of the Dahlia or the common potato, and 
planted out again in spring. It ripens seeds, however, so abundantly, that few persons think it worth while to 
preserve the roots, particularly as the seedlings always flower the first year, and the flowers produced by them 
differ very little from those produced by the tubers, either in size or colour. The high-sounding name of the 
Marvel of Peru, seems very ill applied to this plant, as there is nothing very remarkable about it. The plant, 
however, having been introduced very soon after the discovery of Peru, when everything belonging to the new 
World was thought strange and wonderful, and being found to bear flowers of several different shades of colour 
at the same time, it received this name, and Gerard tells us that it was also called the wonder of the world. The 
flowers, says this quaint writer, " remain open the whole day, and are closed only at night, and so perish, one 
flower lasting but only one day, like the true Ephemerum or Hemerocallis. This marvellous variety doth not 
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