ENGLISH BOTANY. 



ORDER XXVIL— LYTHRACEJS. 



Herbs, rarely trees or shrubs, with the branches generally 

 4-si(ied, and the leaves opposite or verticillate, rarely alternate, 

 exstipulate, pinnately-veined, mostly entire, destitute of glands or 

 dots. Flowers axillary, solitary or in glomerules or cymes, some- 

 times raeemosely or spicately arranged, perfect, generally regular, 

 commonly purple, but sometimes white, yellow, bluish, or red. 

 Calyx sometimes coloured, free from the ovary, 2iersistent, tubidar or 

 bell-shaped, rarely urceolatc ; the Umb 3- to li-toothed at the apex : 

 when the divisions are more than 8, they are in 2 rows, those of the 

 outer row differing in size and shape from those of the inner, being 

 usually smaller ; teeth valvate or distant in aestivation. Petals as 

 many as the teeth of the calyx, or if there he two rows of the latter, 

 as many as the inner teeth, inserted in the throat of the calyx, deci- 

 duous, obovate or oblong, often undulated at the margins, imbricated, 

 rarely absent. Stamens as many, or twice or thrice as many as the 

 petals, inserted in the upper part of the tube of the calyx ; filaments 

 distinct ; anthers 2-celled, introrse. Ovary superior, free, sessile 

 or shortly stipitate, 2- to 4-celled, with tlie placenta; in the axis, 

 and contaLniug numerous ovules ; style terminal, simple, some- 

 times very short ; stigma simple, obtuse or capitate, rarely 2-lobed. 

 Capsule membranaceous, or rarely leathery, enclosed in the calyx- 

 tube, but not adhering to it, often 1-celled by the obliteration of the 

 dissepiments, dehiscing loculicidally, circumcissily, or irregularly. 

 Seeds small and numerous, rarely few and large, without albumen ; 

 embryo orthotropous, with the cotyledons flatfish, often foliaceous 

 and with 2 auricles at the base. 



GUNUS J.— LYTHRUM. Limi. 



Calyx cylindrical, with as many stri;!? as there are teeth, whicli 

 ;ue 8 to 12, iu 2 rows, flic alternate ones exterior and smaller than 

 file others, rarely only !■ in 1 row. Corolla of 1 or G petals, which 



VOL. IV. B 



