248 Mr. W. A. Leighton on Epilobium angustifolium. 



afterwards. Flower-buds obovate, somewhat attenuate at the base, 

 suddenly contracted at the apex into a compressed curved point. 

 Sepals 4, linear-lanceolate, attenuate into an acute point, as long 

 as or slightly longer than the petals, spreading, pubescent on the 

 exterior, purplish red, glabrous within, 3-nerved. Petals 4, 

 spreading, subrotundo-obovate, subattenuate into a short claw, 

 emarginate, wavy or wrinkled at the margin, bright and deep 

 rose-colour with darker veins. Filaments dilated and conver- 

 ging at the base, declined upwards, thickened immediately be- 

 neath the anther. Pollen triquetrous, occupying three divisions 

 in length on a micrometer of y^L ^th of an inch, pale, nearly 

 white. Capsule about 1\ inches long, linear, straight, erect, nearly 

 parallel with the stem, tetragonous, the angles rounded and nearly 

 obsolete, covered with pale dense minute pubescence. Pistil fili- 

 form, swollen upwards, with a few hairs a little above the base, 

 at first shorter than, afterwards as long as, or slightly longer 

 than, the stamens, decurved, 4-cleft; segments at first erect, 

 finally revolute. 



Some of these fresh specimens I forwarded with my de- 

 scriptions to Mr. Borrer, who replies, (August 11, 1841,) "I 

 have been used to the sight of a larger and a smaller E. an- 

 gustifolium, the former in gardens and the latter in our Sussex 

 forests, but it never came into my mind to compare them. I 

 now find the latter to be your No. 1. [macrocarpum] ; the 

 former I have no doubt is your No. 2. [angustifolium], but I 

 am not aware that it is in any Henfield garden. In my own 

 I have the wild one only lately brought in. It agrees, as do 

 my dried specimens, with your No. 1. in every respect, except 

 that the flower-bud has not the remarkable pinched point, or 

 in a few flowers only and in a very slight degree, and the se- 

 pals have traces, varying in distinctness, of a second lateral 

 pair of nerves. I have a dried specimen of No. 2. from Mr. 

 Dalton, labelled by him e E. angustifolium/ without any men- 

 tion of the place it came from. Upon the whole, notwith- 

 standing the very remarkable *, 1 cannot persuade myself 

 that the plants are specifically distinct. I suspect that we 

 have No. 2. [angustifolium] wild in the west of Sussex, which 

 I must take the first opportunity of ascertaining/ 5 



It would be very desirable that the plants in the Linnaean 

 Herbarium should be ascertained. The synonomy of conti- 

 nental botanists will be difficult to be determined by reason 

 of the form of the capsule not entering into their characters, 

 at least in such writers as I have means of consulting. 



W. A. Leighton. 



Shrewsbury, Nov. 1, 1841. 



* Hiatus in Mr. B.'s letter.— Ed. 



