146 Nvctaginaceae 
or stigmas 2—3. Utricle 2—-3-beaked by the persistent styles. Mostly weeds. (Gk. 
amarantos—unfading; because the colored calyx and bracts are chaffy and do not wither. ) 
A. Stems erect, 3—-20 dm. high; flowers in dense terminal spikes; sepals 5; stamens 5. 
B. Spikes green, stout, 8—14 mm. thick. E. 
A. retroflexus L. (Rough Pigweed) 
BB. Spikes purple, slender, 4—6 mm. thick. E. (A. hybridus.) 
A. paniculatus L. (Purple Pigweed) 
AA. Stems spreading or ascending (rarely erect in A. graecizans), 1.5—6 dm. long; 
flowers crowded in close small axillary clusters; sepals |—3 (4——5 in A. blitoides) ; 
stamens 3 or fewer. 
C. Fertile flowers with 3 bracts and 3—5 sepals. 
D. Branches and flower-heads and leaves beneath all pinkish to deep flesh-color. 
Ee A. carneus Gr. 
DD. Branches and flower-clusters and leaves all whitish or green. 
E. Plant prostrate; sepals 3—5, very little longer than the bracts; fruit not 
rugose; seed about 1.5 mm. wide. W. E. 
A. blitoides Wats. (Prostrate Pigweed) 
EE. Plant ascending or erect; sepals 3, much longer than the bracts; fruit 
rugose; seed about 0.8 mm. wide. —E. 
A. graecizans L. (Tumbleweed) 
CC. Fertile flowers with | bract and | sepal. E. 
A. californicus Wats. 
NYCTAGINACEAE 4 o’clock Family 
Herbs (ours) or shrubs or trees; juice watery. Stems fragile; joints swollen. 
Leaves mostly opposite (so in ours), simple, entire, petioled; stipules none. Flowers 
perfect, in terminal or axillary clusters; clusters often subtended by an involucre (so in 
ours). Perianth corolla-like, tubular or campanulate or salverform, 4——5-lobed or 
-toothed. Stamens few; filaments slender. Ovary superior, |-celled; stigma capitate. 
Fruit in aleene, somewhat ribbed or grooved or winged, enclosed by the hardened perianth- 
base. Seed |. 
A. Leaves narrowly ovate or wider; perianth not purple. 
B. Flowers about 5 cm. long; involucre-bracts 25—-38 mm. long, united to above 
their middle; fruit not winged nor even strongly :angled. MIRABILIS (p. 146) 
BB. Flowers 1—2.5 cm. long; involucre-bracts 4-19 mm. long, distinct to base; 
fruit 3—5-winged. ABRONIA (p. 147) 
AA. Leaves linear; perianth purple.’ ALLIONIA (p. 146) 
MIRABILIS 4-O’CLOCK 
. Perennial. Flowers showy; clusters terminal; involucre calyx-like, 5-cleft or -parted, 
|—12-flowered, not changed in fruit. Perianth tubular or more or less funnelform, with 
a spreading limb. Stamens usually 5, as long as the calyx; filaments united at base. 
Akene globose or ovoid-oblong, obscurely or hardly ribbed or angled, smooth.. (L. 
mirabiliswonderful; any striking flower is wonderful when first found.) C. E. 
M. greenei Wats. 
ALLIONIA (Oxybaphus) UMBRELLA-WORT 
Annual or perennial; stem forking. Leaves equal. Flowers in a panicle; panicle 
terminal, loose; involucre 5-lobed, 3——5-flowered, becoming enlarged and _reticulate- 
veined after flowering. Perianth campanulate; its lobes contracted above the ovary; 
