366 



encourages. The former variety is by far the commoner in the Isle 

 of Wight, the second, indeed, being very rare here, whilst it abounds 

 in newly-cleared woodlands, and on steep banks in many places on 

 the mainland : the Petersfield, Clanfield and West Meon stations 

 being referrible to the large-flowered kind. I have likewise gathered 

 it on Colonel Wyndham's domain, at Singleton, near Chichester, 

 w r here it forms a perfect little forest at least six feet high, displaying 

 all that beauty of colouring and luxuriant growth which so captivated 

 Linnaeus in this " royal plant " as, in his eyes, to invest the huts of 

 the simple Laplanders, encircled by bowers of stately willow-herb, 

 with the splendour of celestial abodes.* The smaller variety is more 

 restricted to low, wet thickets, or damp heaths, and owes its charac- 

 ters apparently to a. less fertile soil ; but though each retains its pe- 

 culiar features under cultivation as far as has yet been tried, both 

 approach one another by gradations which manifestly forbid their 

 separation as species. Miss L. Sibley has found this species with 

 white flowers, near Petersfield. E. angustifolium in its spiked inflo- 

 rescence, distinctly clawed and spreading petals, deeply lobed style 

 and declined stamens, betrays a generic as well as ordinal alliance 

 with Gaura, whilst CEnothera is more faintly adumbrated in the broad, 

 rounded petals, and the revolutely lobed style of the following spe- 

 cies. These analogies in species of the same genus to conterminous 

 genera are curious and instructive. 



Epilobium kirsutum. This handsome species abounds throughout 

 the Isle of Wight, in damp places, along road-sides, and in our wet 

 thickets, which are often quite filled with it, sometimes attaining a 

 height of seven feet. Plentiful in most parts of the county. I do 

 not remember to have ever seen or heard of a white-flowered variety 

 of this plant. Occasionally cultivated in the Isle-of- Wight gardens. 



parvijlorum. Very common in the county and Isle of 



Wight, along damp lanes, hedges, woods, &c. Flowers occasionally 

 white, but about Selborne, where it abounds, they are of an unusually 

 bright red or purple colour. A nearly glabrous variety is frequent 

 with us, probably the E. rivulare of Wahlenberg, as Mr. Babington 

 also supposes (Man. p. 115). 



montanum. Common all over the county and island, on 



walls, wet rocks, banks, and in woods, &c. 



palustre. By far the least frequent of the willow-herbs 



with us ; at any rate, as regards the Isle of Wight, it may even be 



* ' Flora Lapponica,' p. 113. 



