LYTHRACE^. (LOOSESTRIFE FAMILY.) 180 



(Ammaniiia humilis, Mic.hx.) Low or wet ground, Mass, to Fla., west to 

 Ind., Kau., and Tex. With Ammannia-like habit, an exception in the genus. 



3. AMMANNIA, Houston. 



Flowers in 3 - many-flowered axillary cymes. Calyx globular or bell-shaped, 

 4-angled, 4-toothed, usually with a little horn-shaped appendage at each sinus. 

 Petals 4 (purplish), small and deciduous, sometime^ wanting. Stamens 4-8. 

 Capsule globular, 2 - 4-celled, bursting irregularly. Low and inconspicuous 

 smooth herbs, with opposite narrow leaves, and small flowers in their axils, 

 produced all summer. (Named after Paul Ammann, a German botanist ante- 

 rior to Linnaeus.) 



1. A. COCCinea, Rottb. Leaves linear-lanceolate (2-3' long), with a 

 broad auricled sessile base; cymes subsessile, dense; petals purplish; stamens 

 more or less exserted; style usually slender; capsule included. (A. latifolia, 

 Gray, Manual, not L.) N. J. to Fla., west to S. Ind., Kan., and Tex. The 

 style varies much in length, sometimes in the same specimen. Apparently 

 the more developed form of the southern A. latifolia, Linn., which, as limited 

 by Koehne, has apetalous flowers, with included stamens and short style. 



4. LY THRUM, L. LOOSESTRIFE. 



Calyx cylindrical, striate, 5 - 7-toothed, with as many little processes in the 

 sinuses. Petals 5-7. Stamens as many as the petals or twice the number, 

 inserted low down on the calyx, commonly nearly equal. Capsule oblong, 2- 

 celled. Slender herbs, with opposite or scattered mostly sessile leaves, and 

 purple (rarely white) flowers; produced in summer. (Xame from XvQpov, 

 blood ; perhaps from the styptic properties of some species.) 



* Stamens and petals 5-7 ; flowers small, solitary and nearly sessile in the axils 



of the mostly scattered upper leaves ; proper calyx-teeth often shorter than the 

 intermediate processes ; plants smooth. 



1. L. Hyssopifolia, L. Low annual (6-1 0' high), pale; leaves oblong- 

 linear, obtuse, longer than the inconspicuous flowers ; petals pale-purple ; sta- 

 mens usually 4-6, included. Marshes, near the coast, Maine to N. J. (Eu.) 



2. L. lineare, L. Stem slender and tall (3-4 high), bushy at top, u--ith 

 2 margined angles ; leaves linear, chiejiy opposite ; petals whitish ; flowers with 

 6 fncluded stamens and a short style, or the stamens exserted and style short; 

 ovary on a thick short stalk; no fleshy hypogynous ring. Brackish marshes, 

 N. J. to Fla. and Tex. 



3. L. alatum, Pursh. Tall and wand-like perennial ; branches with mar- 

 gined angles; leaves oblong-ovate to linear-lanceolate, acute, with a cordate or 

 rounded base, the upper mostly alternate ; calyx 2 - 4" long ; petals rather large, 

 deep-purple; stamens of the short-styled flowers exserted; fleshy hypogynous 

 ring prominent. Ont. to Minn., south to Ga., Ark., and Col. ; also near Boston. 



* * Stamens 12 (rarely 8 or 10), twice the number of the petals, 6 longer and 6 



shorter ; floicers large, crowded and whorled in an interrupted spike. 



L. SALICARIA, L. (SPIKED LOOSESTRIFE.) More or less downy and tall ; 

 leaves lanceolate, heart-shaped at base, sometimes whorled in threes ; flowers 

 purple, trimorphous in the relative lengths of the stamens and style. Wet 

 meadows, N. Scotia to Del. (Nat. from Eu.) 



