N. ORD.-HAAMODORACE&. a%4 
GENUS.—LACHNANTHES,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
LACHNANTHES. 
RED ROOT. 
SYN.—_LACHNANTHES TINCTORIA, ELL.; HERITIERA GMELINI, MICHX.; 
DILATRIS TINCTORIA, PURSH.; D. HERITIERA, PERS. 
COM. NAMES.—RED ROOT, SPIRIT WEED, DYERS’ DILATRIS. 
A TINCTURE OF THE WHOLE PLANT LACHNANTHES TINCTORIA, ELL. 
Description.—This perennial herb grows to a height of from 1 to 2 feet. 
Rhizome more or less horizontal, cylindrical, ligneous; vood/ets fibrous, deep 
orange-red, mostly springing from the head of the rootstock. Svewz erect, simple, 
hairy above the last leaf. Leaves equitant, sword-shaped, mostly clustered at the 
base of the stem, those evident on the stem remote, small, and sheathing at the base. 
Inflorescence a dense, terminal, compound, leafy-bracted cyme ; flowers dingy yel- 
low ; perianth woolly externally, 6-parted, the three inner divisions larger, the outer 
three linear. Stamens 3, opposite the larger lobes; /i/aments dilated below; anthers 
exserted, linear, versatile, 2-celled, opening longitudinally. Ovary globular, 3-celled, 
wholly adherent to the calyx-tube; ovu/es amphitropous ; style filiform, exserted, 
declined, deciduous; séigma evident, capitate. Fruit a globular, 3-angled capsule ; 
placente fleshy ; seeds few in each cell, discoid, concave, fixed by the middle. 
Heemodoracess.—This small family of herbaceous plants belongs chiefly to 
South Africa and Australia, only 3 genera and 4 species being found in the United 
States. The order is characterized as follows: Roods fibrous, spreading; stem 
scape-like, leafy ; eaves mostly equitant, sword-shaped. Flowers regular and per- 
fect, 3 to 6 androus; pertanth tubular, woolly, or mealy outside, 6-lobed, and 
coherent with a portion or all of the ovary; sepals.and petals undistinguishable. 
Stamens inserted upon the tube of the perianth ; az¢/ers introrse. Ovary 3-celled ; 
“ovules anatropous or amphitropous, and attached to central placentz; sty/e single 
and deciduous or 3-partible and persistent; st#gma single, or, when 3, then alter- — 
nate with the cells of the ovary. Frudt a 3-celled, loculicidal capsule, crowned by | 
or enclosed within the persistent perianth; seeds 3-many ; embryo small; aldumen 
hard or fleshy, surrounding the embryo. : | a 
The only proven plants of this order are those treated of in this work. The 
roots of several south-tropical species are tonic, bitter, and astringent, while several 
* Adxvn, lachne, wool; 4v0s, anthos, flower: from the resemblance. 
