In the latter the stamens are rather shorter than those in the
other form. The six stamens alternate with the petals, and therefore correspond
homologically with the longest stamens of L. salicaria and L. Graefferi.
Lythrum hyssopifolia.
This species is said by Vaucher, but I believe erroneously, to be dimorphic. I
have examined dried flowers from twenty-two separate plants from various
localities, sent to me by Mr. Hewett C. Watson, Professor Babington, and others.
These were all essentially alike, so that the species cannot be heterostyled.
The pistil varies somewhat in length, but when unusually long, the stamens are
likewise generally long; in the bud the stamens are short; and Vaucher was
perhaps thus deceived. There are from six to nine stamens, graduated in length.
The three stamens, which vary in being either present or absent, correspond with
the six shorter stamens of L. salicaria and with the six which are always absent
in L. thymifolia. The stigma is included within the calyx, and stands in the
midst of the anthers, and would generally be fertilised by them; but as the
stigma and anthers are upturned, and as, according to Vaucher, there is a
passage left in the upper side of the flower to the nectary, there can hardly be
a doubt that the flowers are visited by insects, and would occasionally be
cross-fertilised by them, as surely as the flowers of the short-styled L.
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