Mirabilis
(from mirabilis, wonderful). Marvel of Peru. SYNS. Jalapa, Nyctago. ORD. Nyctagineae.
A genus comprising about ten species of very ornamental greenhouse or hardy di-trichotomously branched, glabrous or glandular-pubescent, perennial herbs, confined to the warmer parts of America. Flowers white, scarlet, or various-coloured, large, fragrant or inodorous; involucres one to many-flowered, in often densely-branched cymes; perianth tube elongated, constricted above the ovary. Leaves opposite, lower ones petiolate, upper ones sessile. Root elongated or tuberous. The species most generally grown is M. Jalapa. This thrives very well in almost any ordinary garden soil, but does best in a good friable loam. It is really perennial, but is usually treated as a half-hardy annual, by sowing seeds, in a warm frame, during the early spring, and planting the seedlings out in the open in May. The other species mentioned prove hardy in the South of England, and require similar treatment. M. dichotoma (twice-forked). fl. yellow, expanding in the afternoon. July. l. ovate, sub-acuminate, obtuse at base. h. 2ft. Mexico, 1640. Greenhouse. M. Jalapa (jalap).* Common Marvel of Peru. fl. very variable, white, yellow, crimson, or striped or blotched with two or more of these colours, fragrant. Summer. l. large, entire, smooth. h. 2ft. Mexico and Central America, 1596. Generally treated as a half-hardy annual, but the tuberous roots can be taken up and stored like Dahlias. (B. M. 371.) M. longiflora (long-flowered). fl. varying in colour from white and pink to violet, long, tubular, fragrant, viscid. July. l. cordate, acuminate. h. 2ft. Mexico, 1759. Hardy. (S. E. B. 23.) M. multiflora (many-flowered).* fl. bright purple, with a tube about 2in. long, disposed in terminal panicles, each panicle inclosed in a cup-like involucre. l. opposite, ovate. Mexico and California, 1876. A very beautiful hardy plant, clothed with glandular pubescence. (B. M. 6266.)