Melastomaceee -Rhexia. 



195 



foot high with angular winged stems, sessile lanceolate leaves 

 with bristly teeth, and terminal or axillary clusters of rosy 

 flowers, appearing in June or July. 



ORDER XLVI LYTHRARIEJE. 



Trees, shrubs, or herbs of variable habit with the branches 

 often tetragonal. Leaves usually opposite, exstipulate. Calyx- 

 lobes valvate. Petals usu- 

 ally crumpled. Stamens 

 definite or rarely numerous. 

 Fruit usually free from the 

 calyx-tube. This order 

 comprises several very 

 curious genera, including 

 the Pomegranate (Punica 

 Granatum), referred here 

 by some botanists. It is 

 remarkable for the apple j 

 like fruit having two series 

 of carpels one above the 

 other. Formerly, this waa 

 more generally cultivated 

 in boxes or large pots for 

 standing out in the Summer 

 time. The flowers are usu- 

 ally scarlet, but there is a 

 white and also a yellow 

 variety, and also a double 

 flowered form as depicted in 

 the cut (fig. 103). 



Fig. 103. Punica Granatum flore pleno. 

 (i nat. size.) 



1. CtJPHEA. 



Herbs, often viscid ; branches terete. Leaves opposite or 

 verticillate, ovate or lanceolate, entire. Peduncles from be- 

 tween the petioles, 1- or more flowered. Flowers scarlet, purple, 

 or white. Calyx-tube elongated, ribbed, coloured, produced 

 below in a spur or protuberance with 6 primary teeth, and 

 ofcen 6 secondary smaller ones. Petals 6, small, the 2 upper 

 usually larger, rarely none. Stamens 11, the upper one being 

 deficient ; filaments alternately long and short, inserted upon 



o 2 



