From the archive record
Lawsonia inermis, also known as hina, the henna tree, the mignonette tree, and the Egyptian privet, is a flowering plant and the sole species of the Lawsonia genus. It is the source of the dye henna used to dye skin, hair and fingernails, as well as fabrics including silk, wool and leather. Henna is a tall shrub or small tree, standing 1.8 to 7.6 m tall (6 to 25 ft). It is glabrous and multi-branched, with spine-tipped branchlets. The leaves grow opposite each other on the stem. They are glabrous, sub-sessile, elliptical, and lanceolate (long and wider in the middle; average dimensions are 1.5–5.0 cm x 0.5–2 cm or 0.6–2 in x 0.2–0.8 in), acuminate (tapering to a long point), and have depressed veins on the dorsal surface. Henna flowers have four sepals and a 2 mm (0.079 in) calyx tube, wit