820 
IX. LYTHRACEME. 
[Ammannia. 
numerous. Species 275, in the tropics chiefly in South America, 
and in temperate regions. (King, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. lxvii. 1.) 
The Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Delima of the Malays, 
often cultivated by the Chinese, belongs to this Order. 
Herbs in wet spots with minute axillary flowers 
Trees or shrubs; flowers moderate or large (minute in 
Crypteronia). 
Stamens not more than 12. 
Shrub; calyx 6-toothed; petals 6; stamens 12 
Tree; calyx 5-toothed; petals o; stamens 4 or 5 ; 
flowers minute, unisexual .... 
Stamens indefinite ; trees. 
Stamens in 2 or more rows; capsule 3- to 6-celled ; 
seed winged ..... 
Stamens in 1 row; capsule 4- to 8-celled; seeds 
minute ....... 
Fruit baccate, 10- to 15-celled; sea trees . 
Ovary quite inferior; stamens 10; flowers small. 
1. Ammannia 
2. Pemphis 
3. Crypteronia 
4. Lagerstrggmia 
5. Duabanga 
6. Sonneratia 
7. Axinandra 
1 . AMMANNIA, Linn. 
Annual glabrous herbs in wet spots. Leaves opposite or 
alternate, entire. Flowers very small axillary and sub-sessile or 
in small trichotomous cymes. Calyx campanulate, 3- to 5-toothed. 
Petals 3 to 5 or often none. Stamens 2 to 8 on the calyx-tube. 
Ovary enclosed in the tube, 1- to 5-celled. Capsule membranous, 
globose or ellipsoid, 2- to 3-valved, irregularly breaking up or 
circumscissile. Seeds many, minute. (Koehne, in Pflanzenreich, 
separates these two species into two genera Rotala and Ammannia, 
on what appears to be somewhat insufficient grounds.) Species 30, 
whole of the warmer parts of the world. 
Flowers sessile; capsule ellipsoid; seed narrow, oblong . (1) A. peploides 
Flowers pedicelled; capsule hemispheric ; seed hemi¬ 
spheric . (2) A. baccifera 
(1) A. peploides Spreng. Sysi. i. 444; Clarke, in Hook. fil. F.B.I. 
ii. 566; King, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. lxvii. (2), 3. Rotala indica, 
Koehne, Pflanzenreich 40. 
Erect or decumbent, 4 to 14 in. tall. Leaves 4 in. long, oblanceo- 
late obtuse, narrowed to base. Flowers very small sessile, solitary 
in axils of reduced leaves. Bracts in pairs, filiform. Calyx 
2-valved, ellipsoid. Seeds narrow oblong, sub-falcate, pink, 
angled. Hab. Damp spots, rice-fields and marshes in the north. 
Perlis, Ginting Kabok. Lankawi, Kwah in marshes. Kelantan, 
Kota Bharu, rice-fields (Ridley). Dislrib. India, Java, China, 
Persia. 
(2) A. baccifera Linn. Sp. PL 120; Clarke, l.c. ii. 569; 
King, l.c. 3. 
A dull red herb. Stem erect 8 to 12 in. or more tall branched. 
Leaves opposite, linear-oblong sub-acute or blunt, narrowed at 
base 2 to 5 in. long, 2 in. or less wide, upper ones small. Flowers 
