ON EPILOBIUM ALPINUM AND E. ANAGALLIDIFOLIUM. 109 



Sparganium simplex Huds. 108. Altnacaillich. 



Carex pauciflora Lightf. 108. Marshy ground, 1500-1800 ft., 

 W. of Ben Hope. 



Alopecurus agrestis L. 108. By the keeper's house, Altna- 

 caillich. 



ON EPILOBIUM ALPINUM and E. ANAGALLIDIFOLIUM. 

 By H. & J. Gkoves. 



Foe many years British botanists were satisfied with one well- 

 marked alpine Epilohlum, E. alpimim, but in 1856 Prof. Babington, 

 in an article on the British Epilohia in the * Annals of Natural 

 History,' added a second, E. anagallidifulium Lam., limiting the 

 name of aipinum to plants having rosulate stoles, and linear- 

 lanceolate acute sepals, and referring to anagallidifoliiun those having 

 elongated stoles and oblong blunt sepals. This view has been 

 maintained in the subsequent editions of the ' Manual of British 

 Botany.' It was also adopted in the third edition of ' English 

 Botany,' but with some misgiving, for Dr. Boswell writes : — "I have 

 great hesitation in accepting this [E. anagallidifoliiim] as a species 

 distinct from E. alpinum, as I find it extremely difficult to separate 

 dried specimens which are destitute of stolons ; and though I have 

 collected both forms, I never supposed at the time I was collecting 

 two species." In the eighth edition of the ' London Catalogue ' the 

 two species in question are maintained. Haussknecht, in his 

 magnificent monograph of the genus, and Nyman, in the ' Con- 

 spectus Florae Europasse,' both recognise only the one species, 

 using for it the name of E. anagallidifolium. 



From an examination of a number of specimens, we are led to 

 conclude that E. anagallidifolium is not distinct from E. alpinum, 

 the variation in the length of the internodes of the stoles being 

 apparently due to differences of habitat. Although the sepals of 

 some specimens are more obtuse than those of others, we have not 

 been able to meet with any, either British or foreign, which can be 

 described as "linear-lanceolate acute." The contention that E. 

 alpinum is a Scandinavian, and E. anagallidifolium a French type will 

 not hold, for the elongate-stoloned state occurs in Scandinavia, and 

 in Linngeus's original description of alpinum Switzerland is given as 

 one of the localities. 



We think that the name of E. alpinum. should be retained for 

 the species, the grounds upon which it is rejected by some authors, 

 in favour of Lamarck's more recent name, appearing insufficient. 

 We cannot see that there is any evidence or probability that 

 Linnaeus included E. alsinefolium under alpinum, as stated by 

 Nyman. Haussknecht apparently rejects the name of E, alpinum 

 on the ground that Linnaeus's species included his E. lactifiorum, as 

 evidenced by a specimen in the Linnean Herbarium. 



There must always be a difficulty in dealing with the Linnean 

 names for the less conspicuously distinct species, and we think the 

 more satisfactory method is to take each case upon its own merits 



