A rather large family, widely distributed, most abundant in America.
Ours are herbs, often succulent, with no stipules; stems often
fragile, swollen at the joints; leaves opposite, usually toothless,
often unequal; flowers perfect, with no petals, but the calyx colored
like a corolla, with four or five lobes or teeth, and more or less
funnel-shaped; one or several flowers in a cluster with an involucre;
stamens three to five, with slender filaments; style one, with a
round-top stigma; the green base of the calyx drawn down around the
ovary, making it appear inferior, and hardening into a nutlike fruit;
seeds sometimes winged.
Quamoclidions have the odd habit of opening in the afternoon, hence
the common name, Four-o'clock. The flowers usually have five stamens,
and are grouped several together in a cluster, which emerges from an
involucre so much resembling a calyx that it is often mistaken for one.
The effect is of the flowers having clubbed together and made one calyx
do for the lot. The fruit is hard, smooth, and roundish.
[Sidenote: =Four-o'clock=
_Quamoclídion multiflòrum._ (_Mirabilis_)
=Pink, purple
Spring
Southwest and Col.=]
The leaves of this low, stout, and spreading perennial are an inch or
two long, light bluish-green, somewhat heart-shaped, rather rough and
coarse, and the stems are often hairy and sticky. The foliage contrasts
strikingly in color with the gaudy pink or magenta flowers, an inch
across and slightly sweet-scented, the shape of Morning-glories and
resembling them, as they have the same stripes of deeper color. The
long stamens droop to one side, the pistil is long and purple and the
bell-shaped involucre contains about six flowers. These plants are
conspicuous and quite handsome. They grow on the plateau in the Grand
Canyon.
There are several kinds of Hesperonia, much like Quamoclidion, but
the bell-shaped involucre contains only one flower, which is also
bell-shaped, usually with five separate stamens. The fruit is roundish,
not angled or ribbed, usually smooth.
[Illustration: Four o'clock--Quamoclidion multiflorum.]
[Sidenote: =California Four-o'clock=
_Hesperònia Califórnica_ (_Mirabilis_)
=Magenta, pink
Spring, summer
California=]
This is very common in southern California and forms quite large, low
clumps of rather yellowish green, sticky and hairy foliage, sprinkled
with numbers of bright little flowers, opening in the afternoon. The
base is woody and the weak, hairy stems are supported on bushes, as if
climbing over them. The leaves are rather thick, about an inch long,
and the flowers are open bell-shaped, about three-quarters of an inch
across, usually magenta, but often pink of various shades, sometimes
quite pale in tint with long stamens drooping to one side, and the
involucre is often purplish and very hairy and sticky. The effect at a
distance is gay and attractive, though the plant is not quite so pretty
close by.
[Sidenote: _Hesperònia glutinòsa var. grácilis_
=White, pinkish
Spring
Arizona=]
This has a straggling, hairy, sticky stem, over a foot long, and
thickish, dull-green leaves, hairy and sticky. The flowers are about
half an inch long, white or tinged with pink, and are rather delicate
and pretty, though the plant is not especially attractive. It blooms at
night, the flowers gradually closing with the morning sun. This variety
is common in the southern part of the state, in mountain canyons, and
_Hesperonia glutinosa_ is common in the north.
There are several kinds of Abronia, all American, with branching,
usually sticky-hairy stems, thick, toothless leaves, with leaf-stalks,
in pairs and one of each pair somewhat larger than the other. The
flowers are more or less salver-form, with five lobes, a threadlike
style, and from three to five, unequal stamens, on the tube of the
perianth and not protruding from it. They are numerous and in clusters,
with involucres, on long flower-stalks, from the angles of the leaves.
The fruit is winged. The name is from the Greek meaning graceful, but
most of these plants are rather awkward in their manner of growth.
[Illustration: Hesperonia glutinosa var. gracilis.