324 



LYTHRACE^E. 



with 4 to 6 teeth and an equal number of accessory ones in the sinuses. 

 Petals 5 or 6, the stamens as many or twice as many. St} 7 le filiform; 

 stigma capitate. Capsule oblong or cylindrical, 2-celled. (Greek 

 luthron, blood, applied either on account of the color of the flowers 

 or the styptic properties of certain species. ) 



Flowers distinctly pediceled; corolla 2 or 3 lines long, bright purple; 



perennial • 1. L. Calif ornicum. 



Flowers subsessile; corolla 1 line long or less, pale purple or almost white. 



Perennial, stoloniferous 2. L. adsurgens. 



Annual, not stoloniferous 3. L. Hyssopifolia. 



1. L. Californicum T. & G. Common Loose-strife. Peren- 

 nial; stems erect, paniculately branching above, 2 or 3 or even 

 6 ft. high; leaves broadly or narrowly linear, less commonly lan- 

 ceolate, mostly f to 2 in. long; flowers distinctly pediceled; calyx 

 2J to 3£ lines long, its teeth sharply acute; petals 2 to 3 lines long, 

 bright purple. - 



Common in low valley and marshy lands and about springs in the 

 mountains: Newark; Suisun, etc. June-Sept. 



2. L. adsurgens Greene. Stoloniferous perennial; branches 

 5-angled, decumbent or assurgent, 1 to 3 ft. long; herbage pallid, 

 slightly succulent; calyx 2£ lines long, 12-ribbed, the ribs in maturity 

 widening and thickened below; teeth minute, subulate; petals pale 

 purple or almost white, minute. 



Low wet places at West Berkeley; (?) central Solano Co. Scarcely 

 more than a robust perennial variety of the next. 



3. L. Hyssopifolia L. Annual; stems slender and simple or 

 with several, branches from below the middle, 4 to 9 in. high; herbage 

 pale, glabrous; leaves linear or oblong, 3 to 7 lines long; flowers sub- 

 sessile in the axils; calyx 2 lines long; petals 1 line long or less, pale 

 purple or whitish. 



Dry hillsides or hollows of the Coast Kange Mountains, preferring 

 slightly alkaline localities: Knight's Valley Grade and Howell Moun- 

 tain southward to New Almaden. Aug. -Sept. 



2. AMMANNIA L. 



Glabrous annuals with mostly 4-angled stems. Leaves opposite, 

 sessile or narrowed to a short-petioled base. Flowers purplish, 2 or 

 more in each axil. Calyx campanulate (in fruit globose or nearly 

 so), the tube 8-ribbed, 4-toothed and usually with small accessory 

 teeth in the sinuses. Petals 4, purplish, small and deciduous, or 

 wanting. Stamens 4 to 8. Capsule globular. (Named for Johann 

 Ammann, a German botanist of the 18th century.) 



Leaves sessile by a broad auricled base 1. A. coccinea. 



Leaves tapering at base, sometimes short-petioled 2. A. humilis. 



1. A. coccinea Kottb. Erect, simple or branching below, 4 to 14 

 in. high; leaves horizontally spreading, broadly linear or somewhat 

 narrowed towards the apex, 1 to 2 in. long, sessile by a broad auricled 

 base; flowers in whorls of 2 to 5; calyx in flower narrowly campanu- 



