644 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



species. A few of the plants are medicinal. The great willow herb (Epilobiuvt 

 angustifolium) is occasionally used in medicine. The hairs of the seeds of 

 some species are used in the Arctics as lamp wicks. Many species of the family 

 are used for ornamental purposes, especially some of the western species of the 

 genus, Oenothera, the Clarkia elegans of the gardens and the greenhouse 

 Fuchsia. The genus Oenothera with many species, some southwestern and 

 some western, contains very pretty plants. 



Fig. 365. Leather-wood (Dirca palustris). This plant is 

 well known in northern woods, especially on the banks of 

 streams; occasion.-Uy found on high land. The bark is very 

 tough and regard'" 1 as poisonous. (Charlotte M. King.) 



Gaura, L. Gaura. 



Annual, biennial, or perennial herbs with alternate sessile leaves; flowers 

 white, pink or red in spikes or racemes ; calyx tube narrow, prolonged beyond 

 the ovary, the limb usually 4-lobed, rcflcxcd ; petals clawed, unequal ; stamens 

 usually 8, with a small scale before the filament, frequently declined ; ovary 

 4-celle(l ; styles declined; fruit hard and nut-like, 3 to 4-ribbed and angled. 

 About 18 species. 



Gaura biennis, L Gaura. 



An erect, soft, hairy or downy annual or l)ieiinial; leaves lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, denticulate; flowers in slender spikes, white, turning pink; 

 fruit oval or oblong acute at each end, 4-ribbed. 



