Unicorn Plant. Gray. Martynia proboscidea.

A hardy, annual plant, with a strong, branching stem two feet and a half or three feet high. The leaves are large, heart-shaped, entire or undulated, downy, viscous, and of a peculiar, musk-like odor when bruised or roughly handled; the flowers are large, bell-shaped, somewhat two-lipped, dull-white, tinged or spotted with yellow and purple, and produced in long, leafless racemes, or clusters; the seed-pods are green, very downy or hairy, fleshy, oval, an inch and a half in their greatest diameter, and taper to a long, comparatively slender, incurved horn, or beak. The fleshy, succulent character of the pods is of short duration: they soon become fibrous, the elongated beak splits at the point, the two parts diverge, the outer green covering falls off, and the pod becomes black, shrivelled, hard, and woody. The seeds are large, black, wrinkled, irregular in form, and retain their germinative properties three years.

Sowing and Cultivation.--The Martynia is of easy cultivation. As the plants are large and spreading, they should be two feet and a half or three feet apart in each direction. The seeds may be sown in April or May, in the open ground where the plants are to remain; or a few seeds may be sown in a hot-bed, and the seedlings afterwards transplanted.

Gathering and Use.--The young pods are the parts of the plant used. These are produced in great abundance, and should be gathered when about half grown, or while tender and

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