206 THE I,TTHRUM FAMILY. 



regions, and although apparently wild in England, it is probably only from long 

 residence. A good test of a plant's being really indigenous to a given country, is 

 its ability to multiply itself there naturally from seed, or without the assistance 

 of man. This power does not appear to be possessed by the Ulvius campestris, 

 and hence, in connection with other circumstances, a foreign origin is reasonably 

 supposed. It is a taller and a straighter-growing tree than the wych-elm, attain- 

 ing, in favourable soils, the height of a hundred feet or more; but rarely near 

 Manchester is it seen of such altitude. The lofdest elms in our district stand in 

 a semicircle at Tipping's Brow, near Mobberley Church. A variety with smooth 

 leaves is the Ulmus glabra of E. B. xxxii. 2248 ; and another with corky bark has 

 been treated as a species under the name of UUmis suherosa. (E. B. xxxi. 21G1.) 

 The latter is said to grow in '-various j^laces in the neighbourhood of Tyldesley." 

 (B. G.) Tliere is also a corky-barked variety of the W7ch-elm. 



LV.— THE LYTHRUxM FAMILY. Lythrdcece. 



A family of about three hundred elegant herbaceous, undershrubby, 

 and occasionally arborescent plants, diffused nearly all over the world. 

 Leaves mostly (or at least the lower ones) opposite, entire, and without 

 stipules ; stems usually four-cornered ; flowers axillary, or forming 

 terminal racemes or spikes, which are more or less leafy at the lower 

 part ; calyx tubular, with as many, or twice as many teeth as there 

 are petals, the latter inserted into its upper extremity, and usually 

 four or five. Stamens seated upon the calyx, and usually lower down 

 in it than the petals, the number of which they either equal or double. 

 Fruit a small, many-seeded capsule, covered by the permanent calyx, 

 but not united to it. 



Three species grow wild in England, and all are found near Man- 

 chester. The flowers are in every case trimerous. 



1. Stf-ms two to four feet high, square, and slightly branched •,\ 



leaves lanceolate, sessile, entire, two to tlirce inches long, 



usually opposite, but sometimes in threes or fours ; flowers I Piteple 



reddish -purple, in dense whorls in the axils of the upper [Lythbum. 



leaves, forming handsome tapering spikes, six to eighteen 



inches long. Petals six ; stamens about twelve 



2. Stems six to eight inches high ; leaves sessile, barely half an 



inch long, the upper ones alternate ; flowers small, purple, 

 solitary in the axils of the upper leaves ; stamens six ... . 



3. Stems two to four inches high, nuraerou-;. and creeping ; 



leaves tapering into short stalks ; flowers as in the pre- 

 ceding, but in the axils of nearly all the leaves, and sessile 



Hyssop-leaved 

 Lyturum. 



Peplis. 



