LYTHRACEZ. 41 
Description.-—The flowers and their calices are red, the 
latter are permanent, and retain their colour after the flower 
has faded. As met with in commerce the calices generally 
contain the nearly mature capsules, which are two-celled and 
two-valved and completely enclosed. The seeds are light 
brown, very minute, oblong and very numerous; if the calyx 
is soaked in water it will be seen to be 12-toothed. In 
ordinary samples of the article some of the flowers are in small 
racemes, and a good many lanceolate leaves with a whitish 
under surface studded with black dots are mixed with them; 
both sides of the leaf will, if examined with a lens, be seen to 
be covered by a close dense tomentum. The enlarged calices 
are very astringent. 
Chemical composition.—The flowers yielded to Hummel 20°6 
per cent. of tannic acid, which explains their use by the Hindus 
in connection with alum as a mordant and with other dye-stuffs, 
(Watt, Select. from the Records of the Govt, of India, Vol. 1., pp. 
91 and 93.) 
Commerce.—The article is collected in large quantities. - 
_ Value, Rs. 15—-25 per kandy of 5¢ cwts. The variation in 
_ price depends upon the quantity in the market. 
LAWSONIA ALBA, Lam. 
Fig.—Lam. IIl., t. 296, f. 2; Wight Ill., t.87; Griff, Ic. Pl. 
Asiat, t. 580. Henna (Eng.), Henné (Fr.). 
Hab.—Western India; cultivated throughout India. The 
leaves and flowers. 
Vernacular.~-Méhndi (Hind.), Mendi (Mar-., Guz mF Masaioial, 
Aivanam (TZam.), Méhédi (Beng.), Goranta (Tel.), Gorante 
(Can.). 
_ History, Uses, &c.—Henna is the Mendika and Rakta- 
garbha, or “ plant pregnant with red colouring matter,” of 
Sanskrit writers. It is much esteemed by the Mahomete 
a There i is a tradition that their — ede of it as “ Sy 
11.—6 
