Rhodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 20. January, 1918. No. 229. 
AMERICAN VARIATIONS OF EPILOBIUM, SECTION 
CHAMAENERION. 
M: L. FERNALD. 
In working over the accumulated material of Epilobium, Section 
Chamaenerion chiefly from eastern British America, it has been found 
desirable to recognize a number of well marked varieties, while a 
detailed study has forced the writer to conclusions different in certain 
regards from those recorded in some recent papers on the genus. 
These results, so far as they seem worthy publication, are recorded 
under the following subtitles. 
I. EPILOBIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM AND ITS VARIATIONS. 
THE common Fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium L., of northern 
regions as represented in a large herbarium seems like a hopeless 
maze of variations, so great is the diversity in stature, size and shape 
of leaves, size and color of petals, and the degree to which the inflores- 
cence bears leafy bracts. Many authors have segregated the species 
into several so-called species and others have attempted the segrega- 
tion of it into forms; Haussknecht, for instance, in his monograph 
recognizes fourteen forms. For the most part these forms recognized 
by Haussknecht are without geographic significance and many of 
them can be found in any region where E. angustifolium is abundant. 
As the species occurs in North America, however, it is divisible into 
four somewhat pronounced trends which seem to have a marked 
degree of geographic isolation, although each of these major trends 
