LYTHRACEyE. 



181 



supplied with water, becomes a large plant, particularly if it 

 be transferred every season into a larger pot or tub ; it may 

 be set out all the summer in a moist spot sheltered from the 

 sun, and will flower profusely. A few plants are worth 

 sheltering in the greenhouse in winter, for the sake of their 

 fine bushy heads, which may become exceedingly valuable 

 in summer to fill up gaps, unavoidably formed by the death 

 of some more hardy plant. II. Japonica, a native of the 

 island of Nipon, and much cultivated by the Japanese, is a 

 very handsome plant, and has two varieties, one with rose- 

 coloured flowers, and the other with blue, the latter is the 

 handsomest : the compound umbel of flowers is flat, the 

 fertile and small flowers being blue, the sterile at the edge 

 of the group, and having from three to five very large di- 

 visions, which are white, tinged with blue at the base ; these 

 form the flower and are very conspicuous ; this variety makes 

 a good show in the greenhouse, and is quite hardy there. 

 Another species, named stellata, is also introduced, as well 

 as Belzonii. 



LYTHRACEM 

 Exogens, with the calyx tubular, ribbed, often oblique. Pe- 



