SWISS FLOWERS. 51 



33. Epilobium.— Willow^-Herb. 



(PLATE XX.) 



The colour of the Willow-Herb is generally pretty, and 

 E. hirsutum, the Great Willow-Herb — known in some places 

 under the name of Codlins-and-Cream, from the top shoots 

 having a pleasant odour of cooked fruit — may rank among 

 the handsomest of our wild plants. They are distinguished 

 not only by their pink colour, but by their stamens and 

 pistils, the latter especially. In some this is four-cleft at the 

 summit, and, as its being so or not forms one of the dis- 

 tinguishing marks between the species, it should be care- 

 fully noticed. The parts of the flower are in two, four, or 

 eight. The difi'erent species vary much, according to 

 situation, and thus may easily be confounded with each 

 other. Our figure, E. Dodonsei (Fig. 33), or rosmarini- 

 folium, or Fleischeri, represents one of the prettiest, though 

 by no means the tallest, species. Its almost-woody, branch- 

 like, stems often hang over the rocks and stones on the 

 bank of a stream : for, like most of its family, it loves 

 moisture ; or it may take possession of a little islet of sand 

 left in the bed of a small river, and turn it into a patch of 

 beautiful colour. Its four entire rose-coloured petals have 

 a touchjof purple in them, and are so far apart as to allow 



the four dark sepals to appear between them. These are of 



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