46 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



1 06. Pyrus Aucuparia, Ehrh. Tree, leaflets pinnate, serrate, hairy 

 below, green, 6-8 pairs, flowers white, in corymb, berries red, sub- 

 globose. 



Rosebay (Epilobium angustifolium, L.) 



The charming Rosebay, known in our gardens as well as the fields, 

 is found in the Temperate and Arctic parts of Europe at the present 

 day (there are no earlier records), in N. and W. Asia, as far east as the 

 Himalayas, and in America. In Great Britain it has not been found 

 in Cornwall, but in the rest of the Peninsula, and the whole of the 

 Channel and Thames provinces. In Anglia it is not found in West 

 Suffolk and Cambridge nor in Hunts or Northants, but throughout 

 the Severn province; in Wales only in Glamorgan, Brecon, Cardigan, 

 Merioneth, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Anglesea, and Flint. It is not found 

 in S. Lines or Notts in the Trent province, but throughout the Mersey 

 and Humber provinces except in S.E. Yorks, and throughout the 

 Tyne and Lakes provinces. In Scotland it is found throughout the 

 W. Lowlands, except in Wigtown and Renfrew; in the S. Lowlands, 

 except in Peebles, Selkirk, Hadclington; the whole of E. Highlands, 

 West Highlands, except Mid Ebudes; and in the North Highlands 

 everywhere except in E. Sutherland. It is found in the Highlands at 

 2700 ft., and in X. and E. Ireland. 



The Rosebay is a woodland plant, delighting in a rocky upland 

 clearing, but growing as frequently on the loose rubble of a quarry side 

 or wherever natural scars and crags are exposed, in the neighbourhood 

 of woods. One of our handsomest wild flowers, held also in admira- 

 tion in the garden, Rosebay is tall, erect, much branched, with 

 numerous long, narrow, lance-shaped, veined, scattered leaves, alter- 

 nate, with a white midrib and whitish under side, the margin minutely 

 and finely toothed. The stems are downy. The bracts or leaf-like 

 organs are like the leaves connected with the flower. The second 

 Latin name explains the shape of the leaves. 



The first Latin name refers to the inferior position of the ovary 

 below the perianth, the flowers apparently resting on a lobe or pod 

 (later). The flowers are purple, unequal or irregular, in a spike. The 

 calyx is spreading and free, the stigma is bent. 



The plant is 3-4 ft. high. It flowers in July and August. It is 

 perennial, increasing by division, and often cultivated. 



Sprengel, as long ago as 1790, showed that the flowers, which open 

 soon after sunrise, are proterandrous, i.e. the anthers ripen first, though 



