"July 4, near Oczakow, found thousands of these plants fully blown, in a marsh, every spring-tide overflown by the sea; found there also, a Tartarian farmer, who lived entirely by the profits arising from the honey which the bees extracted from the flowers of this plant, sold to Constantinople and other parts of Turkey for medicinal uses.
"July 15, arrived at Trebizond, found a valley about ten English miles from the sea covered with these plants."
On cultivation, Mr. Hove relates that he found the _Azalea's_ from Trebizond much more tender than those from the borders of the Dnieper and the Dniester, and was therefore inclined to regard them as strong varieties if not distinct species.
The leaves, when fully expanded, are in size and figure like those on the plate, hairy on both sides, and terminating in a very remarkable blunt mucro or point, which has not been noticed either by those who have described or figured the plant as it deserves, for it appears to form a very strong character.
Oxybaphus Viscosus. Viscid Umbrella-Wort.
_Cal._ 5-fidus campanulatus. _Cor._ infundibuliformis. _Nux_ 5-gona 1-sperma calyce explanato persistenti circumdata.
OXYBAPHUS _viscosus_. _L'Herit. Monograph._
MIRABILIS _viscosa_ floribus racemosis; foliis cordatis orbiculato-acutis tomentosis. _Cav. Icon. I. n. 17. t. 19._
The present is one of those plants which is entitled to our admiration, for its curious and singular structure, rather than for any extraordinary figure it makes in a collection; not that its flowers are without a certain share of beauty.
It is an annual, growing to about the height of two feet; the whole plant is viscous, and, if bruised, smells somewhat disagreeably; the flowers do not open at any particular time as those of the _Mirabilis_ do, and each contains only three stamina; when they fall off, which they do soon after expanding, the calyx closes on the germen, enlarges, droops, and becomes deeply plaited; on the ripening of the seed it turns brown, expands, and is suspended like a little umbrella over the seed, which when perfectly ripe drops out on the ground; the expanded calyx in this state appears somewhat like the flower of a Physalis.
This plant flowers from June to October, and ripens its seeds in the open air; it is not difficult of culture, requires the same treatment as other tender annuals from Peru.