288 



THE LYTHRUM FAMILY. 



spikes, more or less leafy at the base ; 

 the upper floral leaves reduced to bracts 

 scarcely longer, or even shorter than the 

 flowers. Calyx about 3 lines long, with 

 as many ribs as teeth; of these the 

 outer ones are subulate, the inner ones 

 short and broad. Petals oblong, often 

 near half an inch long. 



In wet ditches and marshy places, 

 throughout Europe and Russian and 

 central Asia, in Australia and North 

 America. Abundant in England, Ire- 

 land, and southern and western Scot- 

 land, very local in the east and north. 

 Fl. summer. 



Fig. 352. 

 2. Hyssop Lythrum. 



Lythrum hyssopifolium, Linn. 

 (Pig. 353.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 292.) 



A glabrous annual, seldom more than 

 6 or 8 inches high, the stems slight]y 

 branched, and decumbent at the base, 

 or, in starved specimens, erect and sim- 

 ple. Leaves sessile, narrow, and entire, 

 barely half an inch long ; the lower ones 

 opposite, the upper ones alternate. 

 Elowers small, solitary in the axils of the 

 upper leaves ; the calyx scarcely more 

 than a line long, with minute teeth ; the 

 petals purple, about half that length. 



In moist or muddy places, especially 

 tho^e which are occasionally inundated. 

 Widely spread over central and southern 

 Europe, all across central Asia, in North 

 and South America, South Africa and 

 Australia, but not so common in Europe 

 as the spiked L. In Britain but few lo- 

 calities are recorded for it in some of the 

 southern and eastern counties of Engancl and in Ireland. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 353. 



