| + | The fls. have no corolla, but the calyx is colored and tubular and exactly like a corolla in appearance. The fls. are surrounded by a leafy involucre, and sometimes (as in M. Jalapa) only 1 fl. is borne in an involucre, simulating a corolla in a 5-cleft calyx; stamens 5 or 6, as long as the perianth, their filaments united at the base; style 1, with a capitate stigma: fr. hardened, caps.-like and indehiscent.—About a dozen species in the warmer parts of Amer.; or twice that number if Oxybaphus is included. The species of Mirabilis are perennial herbs, although grown as annuals from seeds, with lvs. petioled and opposite, and fls. solitary or paniculate and nearly or quite sessile in the involucres. |