1898.] 4* 



EPILOBIUM ROSKUM IN IREI.AND : IS IT NATIVE ? 



BY J. H. DAVIKS. 



Some observations with which I have been favoured have led 

 me to think that it might be desirable that I should briefly 

 state the considerations which caused me to arrive at the 

 conclusion that Epilobium roseum is indigenous in Ireland, as 

 expressed in my former communication {supra p. 7). 



Were it not for the doubt which some able botanists have 

 entertained on the question, the possibility of the plant not 

 being native in anj- of the several places in which I have seen 

 it in the North, would never have entered my mind. It is 

 not a cultivated plant, and thus escapes any suspicion of 

 being a garden waif. The only way in which it could have 

 been carried hither, it seems to me, would be with imported 

 soil. This is also the opinion of my friend, Mr. J. G. Baker, 

 of Kew. But the nature of the situations in which it occurs 

 precludes the notion of any such importation. 



Mr. Praeger informs me that he has met with it in a garden 

 in Dublin, and that although he has found it in a different 

 situation in Co. lyOUth, he does not think it can be claimed as 

 native. But the circumstance of its occurrence in a garden 

 is by no means singular. So far I have not seen it in gardens, 

 but Templeton notes it as having occurred in his orchard ; 

 and that it very frequently does spring up in gardens there is 

 ample testimon3^ The same holds good of some other Willow- 

 herbs. E. Dioniamun, E. obsairum^ E. parviflorum and even 

 E. hirsutwn also occur in gardens ; but as plants with wind- 

 borne fruit, do they not come there spontaneously ? It wdll 

 not be supposed that any of them is directly introduced. On 

 the other hand, in most instances, they would more likely be 

 regarded as unwelcome intruders, 



" Up there came a flower, 

 The people said a weed," 



and care would be taken to eradicate them. 



Mr. Bagnall, in his *' Flora of Warwickshire,'* (i89i)> ranking 

 it as native, writes of E, rosetwi : — "An abundant weed in my 

 owm garden, Aston, j^ear after year, not introduced." 



Revs. Purchas and Ley, who, in the " Flora of Herefordshire " 

 (1889), give some garden localities, have the following per- 

 tinent and interesting note : — *' E. roseum shows a preference 



