Ammannia.] LYTHRARIEZ (Sond.) 515 
Flowers either solitary or axillary, or in tufts or cymes, or spicato-racemose, rarel 
panicled, purple or white, sometimes showy. None are remarkably useful, pened 
we include among useful products the Henna (prepared from Lawsonia alba), uni- 
versally used by the ladies of Egypt and in the East for dyeing their nails and hair. 
TABLE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GENERA. 
I. Ammannia,— Calyx bracteolated at the base, campanulate, 8-14-toothed. Petals 
4-7 or wanting. Capsule 4-celled, or when ripe only 1-celled. 
II. Lythrum.—Calyx bracteolated at the base, cylindrical, 8-12-toothed. Petals )~ 
4-6. Capsule 2-celled. 
III. Nesaea.—Calyx not bracteolated at the base, hemispherical-campanulate, 8—12- 
lobed. Petals 4-6. Ovary 4-celled. 
I, AMMANNIA, Linn. 
Calyx bracteolated at the base, more or less campanulate, with 4-7, 
erect, flat teeth, and 4-7, horn-formed, spreading, smaller ones rising 
from the sinuses. Petals 4-7, alternating with the erect teeth of the 
calyx. Stamens as many or twice as many as the calycine lobes. Ovary 
2-3-4-celled. Style shortish or elongated. Stigma capitate. Capsule 
ovate-globose, membranous, either bursting transversally, the upper 
part falling away with the style, or opening by valves. Seeds numerous, 
attached to thick, central placentas. Lam. Ill. t. 77. DC. Prod. 3. 77. 
Endl. Gen. n. 6146. 
Herbaceous plants, growing in wet soil or in water, all nearly quite glabrous. 
Stem usually 4-angled. Leaves opposite, quite entire. Flowers small, axillary, ses- 
sile or short-peduncled, usually pink or red. Named after John Ammann, once 
professor of botany at Petersburg. 
ANALYSIS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN SPECIES. — 
Stem erect, simple ; lvs. lanceolate ; fl. in axillary corymbs  ... (1) pusilla. 
Stem diffuse much-branched ; lvs. oblong ; fi, subsolitary —.... (2) anagalloides. 
1. A. pusilla (Sond. in Linnea, Vol. 23, p. 40); annual ; stem erect, 
simple, quadrangular, glabrous ; leaves lanceolate, sessile with auricu- 
late base, paler beneath ; axillary corymbs 3—7-flowered, pedunculate, 
bracteolate; flowers 4-petalous, 4-androus. 
Has. Wet places near Sandriver, May, Zeyher. (Herb. 8d.) : 
2-3-uncial. Leaves usually reflexed, a little scabrous above, 3-4 lines long, 
i line wide. Corymbs of the lower axils on — peduncles, about as long as the 
leaves. Calyx nearly 1 line long, shortly 8-toothed. Petals 4, minute, when dry, 
blueish. Capsule roundish, red-brown, terminated by a style of the same length, 
1-celled, many-seeded. It comes near A. awriculata, DC. 
2. A. anagalloides (Sond. 1. c.); stem prostrate, at the base much- 
branched ; branches quadrangular, a little scabrous; leaves oblong, acute, 
upper ones oblong-lanceolate, mucronulate, sessile with cordate base, 
hispidulous on both surfaces, at length glabrous ; flowers subsolitary, 
shortly-pedunculate, apetalous, 4-androus. 
Wet places on Rhinosterkop near Vaalriver, May, Zeyher, 541. (Herb. $d., D.) 
Annual, the opposite branches 3-4 inches long. Leaves green on both surfaces, 
the lower 6 lines long, 2-3 lines wide, the upper ones smaller. Flowers soli or 
geminate. Calyx glabrous, j line long, with 4 erect, bluntish, mucronulate, and 
4 (from the sinuses) subulate, acuminate teeth. Capsule terminated by the filiform 
style, 1-celled. Nearly allied to A. aspera, Guill. and Perrot. 
33° 
