430 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Lythrum Salicaria. 



Fig. 386. Floriferous branch. 



perianth.. Thelatter pre- 

 sents, in the case of a 

 hexamerous flower, six 

 valvate sepals, with which 

 alternate exteriorly five 

 tongues and interiorly 

 five petals. The latter 

 ai'e attenuate at the base, 

 imbricate and corrugate 

 in the bud. Of the twelve 

 stamens, six are supci 1 - 

 posed to the sepals, longer 

 and exserted ; the fila- 

 ments are attached in the 

 tipper part of the recep- 

 tacular tube, and the 

 anthers are bilocular, in- 

 trorse, 1 dehiscing by two 

 longitudinal clefts. 2 The 

 six other stamens, shorter 

 and inserted lower be- 

 neath the petals, have 

 smaller anthers often 

 wholly or in part sterile. 

 The gynoecium, free at 

 the bottom of the recep- 

 tacular tube, is formed 

 of a bilocular ovary, the 

 base of which slightly 

 thickens into a disk, and 

 its summit is attenuated 

 to a style, terminated by 

 an obtusely bilobed stig- 

 matiferous head. On the 

 partition separating the 

 cells is a large placenta 



1 Short, versatile, often coloured red or brown 

 when fertile. 



2 The pollen is " ellipsoid ; six folds ; in water, 

 six bands, on three of which a papilla. Li/l/iriim 



