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but which has leaves equally broad as the broadest of those hi the 

 Yorkshire specimens, and as clearly apiculate. Of the seeds I can 

 say nothing either way. It may be that 1 am somewhat too conser- 

 vative of old species in their undivided integrity ; but I think that so 

 careful and accurate an observer, as is the author of the ' Plants of 

 South Kent,' will allow that where characters are thus found to inter- 

 change between two very closely allied quasi-species, we do rightly 

 to pause before adopting their permanent division. Individually, at 

 least, I must await the opportunity of examining a larger series of 

 l)oth, from different localities, before I can ventui'e to decide either for 

 or against the validity of F. apiculata, as a genuine species discon- 

 nected from F. Germanica. 



2. Epilobium lanceolatum (Sebast.) — Of this still unsettled species 

 Mr. Thwaites has sent a large supply of specimens from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bristol, full length examples, admirably dried. And 

 some good examples were also communicated by Mr. Stephens. 

 The specimens are distinguishable into two trifling varieties or states 

 of luxuriance, gradually passing into each other; the one being small- 

 er, with firmer and much shorter leaves, of a glaucous or grayish 

 colour, tinged with purple ; the other being more luxuriant (two or 

 three of the specimens near a yard long, but folded to a length con- 

 venient for paper), with- longer leaves, which are very thin and flexi- 

 ble in their dried state, and of a bright green colour. The smaller 

 and more rigid examples correspond very well with a specimen from 

 Heidelberg, for which my herbarium was indebted to Mr. Shuttle- 

 worth, of Berne. This specimen is labelled, with the note of cer- 

 tainty, " Epilobium sylvestre, Dierbach !" By Steudel and others, 

 Dierbach's E. sylvestre is cited as a synonym of Sebastiani's E. lan- 

 ceolatum. I have likewise a specimen (iom Aschersleben, received 

 from an excellent Prussian botanist, Herr Hornung, which corresponds 

 pretty well with the more flexible and greener-leaved examples from 

 Bristol. This specimen is labelled by Hornung "Epilobium mon- 

 tanum v. lanceolatum, M. et K." These authorities, in connexion with 

 corroborative information given to me by Mr. Thwaites, are sufficient 

 to satisfy me on the correctness of the name, under which the speci- 

 mens are labelled by Mr. Thwaites and Mr. Stephens. But the ques- 

 tion whether the plant itself should be regarded as a distinct species, 

 or simply as a variety of Epilobium raontanum, remains to be 

 answered. Having been sown in ray garden, some few years ago, 

 from a source which 1 cannot now distinctly make out, the plant has 

 become quite aii established weed there. Among many examples 



