Order CLX. SCLEllANTHACE.E. 
ScLERANTHEiE, Link Enum. 417. (1821) ; DC. Prodr. 3. 377. (1828) a % of Illecebreae, 
Lindley’s Synopsis, 217. (1829) ; Bartl. Ord. Nat. 300. (1830). 
Essential Character. — Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx 4- or 5-toothed, with an 
urceolate tube. Stamens from 1 to 10, inserted into the orifice of the tube. Ovary simple, 
superior, 1 -seeded. Styles 2 or 1, emarginate at the apex. Fruit a membranous utricle 
enclosed within the hardened calyx. Seed pendulous from the apex of a funiculus, which 
arises from the bottom of the cell ; embryo cylindrical, curved round farinaceous albumen. 
— Small herbs. Leaves opposite, without stipules. Flowers axillary, sessile. 
Affinities. Referred by De Candolle to Illecebreae, from which they 
differ in absence of petals and stipules, these plants appear to me to constitute 
a distinct order, more nearly related to Chenopodiacese, from which they chiefly 
differ in the indurated tube of the calyx, from the orifice of which the stamens 
proceed, and in the number of the latter often exceeding that of the divisions 
of the calyx. 
Geography. Natives of barren fields in Em*ope, Asia, and North 
America, and in sterile places in countries of the southern hemisphere beyond 
the tropics. A single species is described from Peru. 
Properties. Uninteresting weeds, of no known use. 
GENERA. 
Mniarum, Forst. Scleranthus, L. 
Ditoca, Banks, Guilleminia, H.B. K. 
Order CLXI. NYCTAGINACEAE. 
The Marvel of Peru Tribe. 
Nyctagines, Juss. Gen. 90. (1789) ; R. Brown Prodr. 421. (1810) ; Bartl. Ord. Nat. 109. 
(1830). 
Essential Character. — Calyx tubular, somewhat coloured, contracted in the middle ; 
its limb entire or toothed, plaited in aestivation ; becoming indurated at the base. Stamens 
definite, hypogynous ; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, with a single erect ovule ; style 1 ; 
stigma 1. Fruit a thin utricle, enclosed within the enlarged persistent base of the calyx. 
Seed without its proper integuments, its testa being coherent with the utricle ; embryo with 
foliaceous cotyledons, wrapping round floury albumen ; radicle inferior ; plumuld inconspi- 
cuous. — Stem either herbaceous, shrubby, or arborescent. Leaves opposite, and almost 
always unequal ; sometimes alternate. Flowers axillary or terminal, clustered or solitary, 
having an involucre which is either common or proper, in one piece or in several pieces, 
sometimes minute. 
Affinities. The tubular calyx, the limb of which is plaited in aestiva- 
tion, and the base of which becomes hardened round the ovary, so that it 
resembles a woody pericarp, will, if taken with the curved embryo and farina- 
ceous albumen, at all times distinguish Nyctaginacese ; add to which, the 
articulations of the stem are tumid, as in Geraniaceae. Its nearest affinity is 
perhaps with Polygonaceae, from which it, however, differs so much that it 
need not be compared with them. 
Geography. Natives of the warmer parts of the world in either hemi- 
sphere, scarcely extending far beyond the tropics, except in the case of the 
Abronias found in North-west America. 
Properties. In consequence of the generally purgative quality of the 
roots of species of this family, one of them was supposed to have been the true 
