126 FLORA OF TASMANIA. \Myrtacece. 
toothed at the mouth, the alternate teeth smaller. Petals four to six, placed at the mouth of the calyx. Stamens 
variable in number, placed on the tube, or at its base, and then almost hypogynous. Ovary two-celled, with many 
ovules attached to a spongy placenta on the axis. Style slender. Stigma capitate. Capsule enclosed in the tube 
of the calyx. (Name from \vdpov, blood; in allusion to the colour of the flowers.) 
1. Lythrum Salicaria (Linn. Sp. PI. 640) ; erectum, foliis oppositis verticillatisve linearibus lineari- 
lanceolatisve sessilibus basi cordatis. — Be Cand. Prodr. iii. 82; Engl. Bot. t. 1061. {Gunn, 30.) 
Hab. Common in wet places throughout the Colony. — (El. midsummer.) [v. v.) 
Distrib. Eastern Australia, from the tropics southward, Europe, and temperate Asia and North 
America. 
A very handsome and common plant, conspicuous for its long spikes of bright rose-coloured flowers. — Gla- 
brous or pubescent. Stems four-angled, 2-4 feet high, leafy. Leaves 1-3 inches long, very variable in breadth, 
linear-lanceolate or narrow linear-oblong, acute, cordate at the base. Spikes a span to 1 1 foot long. Flowers in 
axillary whorls, shortly pedicelled. Calyx about | inch long, deeply ribbed, very frequently six-toothed. Petals 
spreading, equal in number to the calyx-teeth. Stamens inserted near the base of the calyx, about twice as many 
as the petals ; filaments slender ; anthers small. Style very slender, exserted.— -This is the common English 
" Loose-strife." 
i hyssopifolia (Linn. Sp. PI. 642) ; foliis oppositis alternisque lineari-oblongis lanceo- 
latisve obtusis, floribus axillaribus subsessilibus, petalis oblongis, staminibus 5-$.—De Cand. Prodr. iii. 81 ; 
Engl. Bot. t. 292. {Gum, 81.) 
Hab. Northern part of the Island, Gunn. (Introd. ?) 
Distrib. South-east Australia, Europe, temperate North and South America, and South Africa. 
A much smaller and more slender species than the preceding, glabrous.— Stems glabrous, ascending, slender, 
branched. Leaves alternate (rarely opposite), -|-1 inch long, sessile, Hnear-oblong, obtuse. Flowers solitary, ses- 
sile or shortly pedicelled.— This is the "Hyssop-leaved Loose-strife" of England, where it is a rare plant, though 
abundant in many other parts of the world. 
Nat. Ord. XXXI. MYRTACE^E. 
This is one of the largest Australian families of plants, and bears in that country a greater proportion 
to other flowering plants than in any other part of the world. The species are no less remarkable for their 
variety and beauty, than for the nature of the timber of many, the odour of their foliage, and the singu- 
larity of their botanical characters. Upwards of 650 Australian Myrlacea are known, a great many of 
which are undescribed. The great majority of these belong to the Tribes CAamalaudea and Leptospermea, 
both of which are very rare out of Australia, the few Myrtea proper, which number scarcely 20 known 
species, being almost exclusively tropical. The preponderance of the Order is also extratropical, there 
being 80 tropical species; 200 in the south-eastern extratropical, and nearly 400 in the south-western 
extratropical quarters of Australia. Scarcely a single species is common to the south-east and south-west 
shores of the continent, and many genera (upwards of 20), are wholly occidental, some of them containing 
a host of species, as Genetyllis (20), Verticordia (50), Beaufortia (15), Calothamnos (30). Other genera 
again, as Agonis, contain only one south-eastern species and many south-western, so that in every respect 
the maximum development of the Order is in the south-west. 
Gen. I. CALYCOTHEIX, Lab. 
Calyx bibracteolatus ; tubo longe supra ovarium producto, gracili ; limbi lobis 5, apice in setam 
