-Epilobium.] ONAGRARIEA. 171 
ascending ; placentas axile. Fruit various, generally a 2—4-celled 
capsule with loculicidal or septicidal dehiscence, sometimes a berry, 
rarely nut-like. Seeds usually small, sometimes provided with a 
tuft of hairs; albumen none, or a thin layer only. 
A small order of about 11 genera and 300 species, widely spread in tem: 
perate regions, rare in the tropics ; most plentiful in North America, especially 
in Mexico. Many of the species have handsome flowers, and are frequently 
cultivated in gardens, particularly the genera Godetia, Ginothera, Clarkia, and 
Fuchsia, but they have no other economical importance. Of the New Zealand 
genera, Hpi/obiwm is universal in cool climates; Fuchsia is confined to South 
America with the exception of the New Zealand species. 
Herbs. Fruit an elongated capsule. Seeds with a tuft of 
hairs a0 i: 26 ge 5 1. EprLopium. 
Shrubs or small trees. Fruita berry .. wi .. 2. FucuHsia. 
1, EPILOBIUM, Linn. 
Herbs ; stems erect or decumbent or creeping, sometimes hard 
and almost woody at the base. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire 
or toothed. Flowers rosé-coloured or purple or white, solitary in 
the upper axils or forming a terminal raceme or spike. Calyx-tube 
scarcely produced beyond the ovary, linear, 4-angled or nearly 
terete; limb 4-partite, deciduous. Petals 4, obovate or obcordate, 
spreading or erect. Stamens 8, the 4 alternate ones shorter. 
Ovary inferior, 4-celled; style filiform; stigma clavate or with 
.4 spreading or erect lobes.; ovules numerous, 2-seriate, ascending. 
Capsule elongate, 4-angled, 4-celled and 4-valved, the valves 
separating and curving back from a central seed-bearing axis. 
Seeds numerous, broadest above, the summit furnished with a tuft 
of long hairs. 
A large genus in the temperate and cold regions of both hemispheres ; rare 
in the tropics, except on high mountains; more abundant in New Zealand than 
in.any other part of the world. Species variously estimated by authors, from 
60 to nearly 200. 
The species of Epilobiwm are well known to be ‘highly variable in any 
country that they inhabit, but in New Zealand the amount of variation is in- 
ordinately great, making it difficult to affix limits to many of the species, which 
appear to merge gradually into one another. In the arrangement of the New 
Zealand forms I have for the most’ part followed Professor’ Haussknecht’s 
elaborate and beautifully illustrated monograph, but I have been unable to 
accept the whole of the species he has proposed, several of them appearing’ to 
‘me to rest on characters much too trivial or inconstant. The b ginner will find 
it most difficult to identify any of the species with certainty, and his only safe 
course is to collect copious suites of specimens and to defer all attempts to name 
them until he has gained a clear idea of the prevalent forms and their characters. 
A. Similes. Stems tall, erect, herbaceous, slightly wooly at the base. - Flowers 
numerous, towards the ends of the branches. 
* Leaves sessile or nearly so. 
Tall, often 3ft. high. Leaves lanceolate or linear-lanceo- 
late. Flowers numerous, large, }-?in. diam., white .. 1. EH. pallidiflorum. 
Slender, 1-2ft. Leaves distant, ovate-oblong. Flowers 
few, large, 4-}.in., white .. ae ate .. 2. EH. chionanthum. 
