OF ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
139 
I. TRIPETALA, Roxb. 
A very sliowy species with scarlet flowers having a deep yellow nectary. It is a native of the East Indies 
on the 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 Nepaul. The flowers, which are very large, are yellow, and netted with purple veins.' 
There are several other kinds natives of Nepaul, with purple, yellow, or rose-coloured flowers, and one kind 
which is fragrant, hut none of these have as yet been introduced. ' 
CHAPTER XXIY. 
NYCTAGINACE7E. 
Essential Character. —Perianth tubular, somewhat coloured, con¬ 
tracted in the middle; its limb entire or toothed, plaited in aestivation; 
becoming indurated at the base. Stamens definite, bypogynous. 
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 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 which is either common or proper, in one piece 
or in several pieces, sometimes minute_ Lindl. 
GENUS I. 
MIRABILIS, Lin. THE MARVEL OF PERU. 
Lin. Si/st. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Calyx inferior. Corolla funnel-form, superior. Nectary globular, enclosing the germ_ (Lin.) 
1.—MIRABILIS JALAPA, Lin. THE COMMON MARVEL OF PERU. 
Engravings. —Bot. Mag. t. 371 ; and our 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 he 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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