550 EPILOBIUM. LCLASS VIII. ORDER I. 



cylindrical, with four flowers, clothed with close pressed white hairs , 

 the limb of four lanceolate scarcely downy segments. Petals four, 

 rose colour, broadly heart-shaped, with a short claw. Stamens erect, 

 with simple filaments and ovate small yellow anthers, rather shorter 

 than the erect style, with its club-shaped stigmas. Capsule elevated 

 on an angular footstalk, frequently as long as itself, which, like the 

 capsule, as it approaches to maturity becomes quite smooth, the four 

 valves obtusely angular, four celled, and many seeded, the seeds small, 

 ovate, crowned by a tuft of long white silky hairs. In all our speci- 

 mens the germen, as it enlarges, becomes reflexed upon its footstalk. 



Habitat. — Sides of Alpine rivulets, not common. On the Cheviot 

 hills. — Mr. Winch. Aber waterfall. North Wales.— Mr. W. Wilson. 

 More frequent in Scotland, especially on the Highland Mountains. 



Perennial ; flowering in July. 



This species has much resemblance to small specimens of E. mon- 

 tanum, from which it differs in the stigmas, being club-shaped, the 

 leaves being smooth and of a flaccid pellucid green, and the stem being 

 smooth and procumbent at the base. Small specimens of this are also 

 much like the following species, E. alpinum, from which it difi'ers in 

 the size and form of the leaf, as well as that of the flowers and fruit 

 being always smooth. 



10. E. alpi'num, Linn. (Fig. 627.) Alpine Willow herb. Stem 

 nearly smooth, branched at the base and procumbent, with two elevated 

 lines ; leaves opposite, oblong, or oblong lanceolate, narrowed at the 

 base, entire, or obscurely toothed, on a short footstalk, smooth, as well 

 as the flower and fruit ; stigmas club-shaped. 



English Botany, t. 2001. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 217. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 184. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 108. — E. anagalli- 

 difolium, Lam. diet. 2. p. 376. 



Root fibrous, with creeping underground stems. Stem procumbent 

 at the base, becoming erect, from one to four inches high, simple or 

 branched at the base, with a few short leafy branches, smooth below, 

 sometimes hairy above, with two, sometimes four elevated lines, leafy. 

 Leaves opposite the upper ones, often alternate, smooth, oblong or 

 oblong lanceolate, with an obtuse point, narrowed at the base into a 

 short footstalk, the margin quite entire, or uneven and obscurely 

 toothed, having a mid-rib and indistinct lateral veins. Flowers few 

 from the axis of the upper leaves, nearly sessile, the calyx tube cylin- 

 drical, with four furrows, quite smooth, as well as the oblong lanceolate 

 segments of the limb. Petals broadly heart-shaped, rose coloured, 

 about half as long again as the calyx. Stamens on erect slender 

 filaments, about as long as the style, bearing simple club-shaped 

 stigmas. Capsule elevated on an elongated footstalk, smooth, obtusely 

 four angled and furrowed, long, linear, erect, rarely reflexed. Seeds 

 numerous, small, ovate, crowned with a tuft of long white silky hairs. 



