252 tYSIMACHlA. L^I-ASS V. ORDER I. 



Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 106. — Lindley, Synopsis, Suppt. 

 p. 327. 



The whole plant clothed wha soft spreading glandular down. Root 

 with creeping underground stems. Stem erect, simple or branchr^d, 

 from one to two or three feet high, round and leafy. Leaves in whorls, 

 of from three to five, on short stalks, ovate-lanceolate, with a strong 

 mid-rib, and numerous lateral branched veins, paler and more downy 

 beneath, especially near the margin, more or less profusely scattered 

 over with small glandular dots. Floivers large, yellow, in axillary 

 whorls, each on an erect slender hairy pedicle, shorter than the leaves 

 from the axis of which they arise. Cahjx of five narrow lanceolate 

 segments, clothed with short glandular hairs. Corolla of five ovate- 

 lanceolate segments, united at the base into a very short tube. The 

 margins ciliated with short glandular hairs, and mostly scattered over 

 with minute glandular spots, Stamens about half as long as the 

 corolla. The. filaments dilated at the base, and united about half their 

 length into a tube, scattered over with glandular hairs. Pistil about 

 as long as the stamens. Stigma obtuse. Capsule globose, dotted. 



Habitat. — Moist banks of rivers ; rare. " Discovered by the late 

 Mr. Nathan Backhouse, in 1803, on the margins of the Skern, north of 

 Darlington ; most frequent on the west side of the river, both above 

 and below the railway bridge."— JToo^er. Who in a note adds, " 1 

 regret that the existence of this plant in the station above quoted, has 

 not been confirmed by Botanists, who have subsequently visited the 

 spot ;" and that " it will probably, ere long, be found in other 

 situations." 



This is a frequent plant on the Continent in shady places, and 

 especially in Italy. We have found it in damp groves and shady 

 places, by the side of rills and the mountain streams of the Apennines, 

 growing from one to three and four feet high, branched, especially 

 above, or simple, and the stem thickly clothed with a soft down. 



Perennial ; flowering in June. 



4. L. Ne'morum, Linn. (Fig. 334). yellow Pimpernell, or Wood- 

 Loosestrife. Stem procumbent ; leaves opposite, ovate, acute, smooth ; 

 peduncles axillary, single flowered ; segments of the calyx linear, 

 subulate; filaments smooth. 



English Botany, t. 527.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 279.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 106. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 184. 



Roots fibrous from the axis of the lower leaves. Whole plant smooth 

 and shining. Stems slender, angular, reddish, from twelve to eighteen 

 inches long, simple or branched in the lower part, where it puts out 

 roots from the axis of the leaves, loosely spreading above. Leaves 

 opposite, ovate, acute, on short footstalks, shining above, paler beneath, 

 with a mid-rib, and two or four lateral ones from the base. Flowers 



