20 LEPTANDRA. No. 59 



No. 59. LEPTANDRA PURPUREA. 



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Names. Purple Leptandra. Fr. Leptandre rouge. 

 Vulgar. Quite!, Hini, Physic-root, Black-root, Whorly- 

 wort, Culvert-root, Brinton-root, Bowman-root. 



Classify Nat. Ord. Pederotia. Diandria monogynia L- 



Genus Leptandra. Calix 5 parted, corolla tubular, 

 nearly equal, 4 fid, 2 stamina, and 1 style, both long and 

 slender. Capsule oval, bilocula, semi-bivalve. Seeds 

 many and central. Leaves verticillaie, flowers spiked. 



Sp. Leptandra purpurea. Raf. Smooth, stem round, 

 leaves ternate, sessile, elliptic, both ends acute, unequally 

 serrate, spike angular, verticillate, base interrupted. 



DESCRIPTION. Root perennial, large, black, v^^ith 

 many long fibres. Stem 15 to 20 inches high, simple, erect, 

 smooth, round. Leaves whorled by three, sessile, smooth, 

 lono-er than the intermodes below, shorter above : of a 

 broad oblong form, breadth 3-5 ths of the length, somewhat 

 cuneate and entire at the base, end acute, margin with 

 unequal serrate teeth, sometimes double serrate in the 

 middle ; nerved and pale beneath- Flowers in a hand- 

 some single terminal, spike 3 to 4 Inches long, purplish, 

 rachis angular, bearing crowded whorls of flowers, sepa- 

 rated towards the base; each flower has a small bract, 

 oval, acuminate. Calix with 5 equal divisions, oval acu- 

 minate, somewhat ciliate, corolla tubular, cyllndric, lim- 

 bus with 4 oval acute divisions, nearly equal. Two fila- 

 ments twice as long as the corolla, anthers fulvous, ob- 

 long, obtuse, sulcate. Style as long as filaments, stig- 

 ma simple acute. 



HISTORY. The Veronica Virgimca of Linnxus was 



widely different from the genus in habit and characters, 

 and 3 or 4 species were blended under that name. I 

 formed with it the Genus Callistachya in 1803, but find- 

 ing that Brown had established an Australian genus of 

 that name, I changed it to Lustachya: both meaning fine 

 apike. But in 1818 Nuttall called it Leptandra; that 

 name meaning slender stamina, being equally good, and 

 ^?7 "^ ?^^ generally adopted. I have used it here, 

 although I had published, in 1820, a Monography of 

 the t.ustachya and its 4 species, wherein I first des- 



