Mr. C. C. Babington on some species o/Epilobium. 315 



for its very differently shaped seeds afford a good distinction, 

 and the appearance of its foliage is very dissimilar. But it is 

 necessary to direct attention to the singular fact, that the plate 

 devoted to the illustration of this species in 'English Botany' 

 represents another plant. Mr, Borrer has kindly favoured me 

 with the use of authentic specimens, named E. alsinifolium by 

 the late Mr. Winch, and stated to have been gathered by him 

 on Cheviot. One of them was communicated by the late Mr. 

 Sowerby as the plant figured by him in 'English Botany' 

 (t. 2000) ; another is stated to be Mr. Winch's plant by the 

 lamented Mr. Edward Forster ; and a third is similarly ticketed 

 by Mr. D. Turner. These three specimens all accord well with 

 the plate (Eng. Bot. 2000) ; but neither they nor it have, as I 

 believe, any claim to the name of E. alsinifolium. They are 

 probably only small states of E. montanum ; indeed, the culti- 

 vated specimen from Mr. Turner can scarcely be called small. 

 Mr. Turner was well acquainted with this rather singular fact, 

 for in the 'Botanist's Guide' (ii. 470) he states, under the 

 heading of E. alpinum, the name originally applied to the plant 

 by Winch, that he, in common with other botanists, believed the 

 specimens sent to him to be " only a starved state of E. mon- 

 tanum.^' I am inclined to agree with Mr. Turner; but Mr. 

 Borrer, than whom there is no person better qualified to give an 

 opinion on such a subject, thinks that "the clubbed stigma and 

 the angles of the stem tend to a contrary conclusion. These 

 angles are still visible on the specimens, as lines at least, even 

 on the large garden fragment." One thing is clear to both Mr. 

 Borrer and myself, viz. that the specimen sent to Sowerby, and 

 figured by him, was not E. alsinifolium. In Winch's Herbarium 

 there is a " small mountain variety of E. montanum/' which has 

 faint decurrent lines upon its lower joints. The Cheviot plant 

 appears to be chordorhizal, judging from one of the specimens 

 preserved in that Herbarium; and the plate in ' English Botany' 

 represents an underground stole similar to those of E. alsini- 

 folium. If we are obliged to allow that hybrids are easily pro- 

 duced between Epilobia in a wild state, then we might probably 

 escape from the difficulty by supposing this plant to be one ; 

 viz. between E. alsinifolium and E. montanum, both of which 

 are, I believe, to be found upon the same part of that mountain. 

 On that supposition, the habit and the leaves would result from 

 the latter plant ; and the stole, the slight angles upon the stem, 

 and the club-shaped stigma, from the former. Nevertheless 

 there is great reason to think that Winch did gather the true 

 E. alsinifolium on Cheviot, for his description of the plant found 

 there, when in cultivation, accords well with that species. His 

 words are, " In winter it is not deciduous, but forms wide- 



