146 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



ofi' flies and other stinging insects, may have relieved them from a great source of 

 irritation. In Collin's "Faithful Shepherdess " we find: — 



" Yellow lij-simachus to give sweet rest 

 To the faint Shepherd, killing where it comes 

 All busy gnats and every fly that hums." 



Gerarde tells us that " the smoke of the burned herbe driveth away serpents, and 

 killeth flies and gnats in a house, which Pliny speaketh of in his 23rd book. Snakes, 

 saith he, craide away at the smell of Loosestrife. The same author afiirmeth, in his 

 26th book, that it dieth haire yellow, which is not very unlike to be done by reason 

 the floures are yellow." Surely if this were known the cultivation of the Loosestrife 

 would be a profitable undertaking at this present time when there is a fashion in 

 yellow hair. 



SPECIES III.— L YSIMACHIA PUNCTATA. Unn. 



Plate MCXLII. 

 L. vulgaris, var. punctata, Benth. Handbook Brit. Fl. ed. ii. p. 304. 



Stem erect, stiif. Leaves verticillate or rarely opposite, subsessile or 

 shortly stalked, ovate or lanceolate, remotely punctate. Flowers in a 

 rather long terminal raceme. Peduncles axillary, wliorled, 1-flowered, 

 rarely those of the lowest whorl corymbosely branched. Calyx 

 segments strapshaped-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, 

 concolorous, ciliated. Corolla saucershaped, with 5 oval subobtuse or 

 subacute ascendmg-spreading segments, without a tooth in the sinus 

 between each, dotted with yellow glands on both sides, ciliated with 

 short gland-tipped hairs. Stamens 5, shorter than the corolla, com- 

 bmed at the base into a tube for nearly half their length. Plant 

 pubescent with jointed glandular hairs. 



Var. a, genuina. 



Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MLXXXIV. Fig. 3. 

 L. punctata, Jacq. Buhy, in B.C. Prod. Vol. VIII. p. C5. 

 Beich. fil. I.e. p. 29. 



Leaves subsessile. Peduncles not much longer than tlie calyx. 

 Calyx segments strapshaped. Corolla segments acute. 



Var. ^, verticillata. 



Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MLXXXV. Fig. 1. 



P. verticillata, Bieb. Buly, in B.C. Prod. Vol. VIII. p. 65. Beich. fil. I.e. p. 29. 



Leaves shortly stalked. Peduncles in fruit 3 or 4 times as long as 

 the calyx. Calyx segments strapshaped-lanceolate. Corolla segments 

 obtuse, considerably larger than those of var. a. Plant with the hairs 

 on the stem and petioles much longer and more woolly. 



