116 MELASTOMACE^E. 



2. L. lineare Linn. : leaves linear, opaque, mostly opposite ; the lower 

 obtuse ; the upper narrow, acute ; flowers slightly pedicelled ; bracts minute ; 

 petals and stamens 6. 



Brackish swamps. N. 3. to Flor. and Louis. July Sept. Tj.. Stem 3 4 

 feet high, slender, virgate, branched at the summit, 4-angled. Flowers small, 

 nearly white. Narrow-leaved Purple Loosestrife. 



** Stamens twice the number of the petals. Flowers numerous, somewhat 

 verticittate in an interrupted virgate spike. 



3. L. Salicaria Linn. : leaves lanceolate, cordate at base ; flowers nearly 

 sessile, in a long spike ; petals 6 7. L. Salicaria var. pubescens Pursh. 

 Deck Bot. 1st. Ed. 



Wet meadows. Can. Maine, Mass., and N. Y. July, Aug. %. Stem 

 2 feet high, pubescent or smoothish. Leaves opposite and ternate, sessile ; the 

 upper ones very small, appearing like bracts. Flowers large, purple. Intro- 

 duced ? Dr. Torrey remarks that it is apparently native in Orange county, N.Y. 



Spiked Purple Loosestrife. 



3. DECODON. Gmel Swamp Willow-herb. 



(From the Greek <?<*?, ten, and oSovs, a tooth ; in allusion to the ten teeth of 

 the calyx.) 



Calyx short, broad campanulate, 10-toothed, 5 teeth longer 

 and spreading. Stamens 10, 5 very long, the alternate ones 

 shorter. Style filiform. Stigma small, undivided. Capsule cov- 

 ered with the calyx, 3 4-celled. Seeds numerous, wingless. 



D. verticillatum EU. Lythrum verticillatum Linn. 



Swamps. Can. and throughout the U. S. Aug. 1\. Stem 26 feet long, 

 sometimes prostrate and rooting at the summit, smooth or pubescent. Leaves 

 lanceolate, acute, on short petioles, opposite and alternate, sometimes verticillate. 

 Flowers axillary, crowded so as to appear whorled, purplish. 



Swamp Willow Herb. 



4. CUPHEA. Jacq. Cuphea. 



(From the Greek Kv<pdg, curved ; in reference to the form of the capsule.) 

 Calyx tubular, ventricose, 6 12-toothed, unequal. Petals 

 6 7, unequal. Stamens 11 14, rarely 6 7, unequal. Style 

 filiform. , Stigma simple or subbifid. Capsule membranaceous, 

 1 2-celled, at length bursting longitudinally. 



C. viscosissima Jacq. : viscid-pubescent ; leaves opposite, petioled, ovate- 

 oblong, a little rough ; flowers lateral, solitary, on short peduncles ; calyx 

 ventricose, gibbous at the base. 



Gravelly places. N. Y. to Geor. W. to Ark. July, Aug. <^).Slem 1218 

 inches high, erect, branching. Petals unequal, narrowed to a claw at the base, 

 purple. Stamens 12. Viscid Cuphea. 



ORDER XLYIII. MELASTOMACE^E. MELASTOMADS. 



Calyx divided into 4, 5, or 6 lobes, cohering more or less 

 with the angles of the ovary. Petals as many as the segments 



