CLASS VIII. ORDER I.] EPILOBITJM. 549 



Stem round, branched, sub- hirsute, as well as the narrow lanceolate 

 entire or obsoletely toothed leaves, wedge-shaped at the base, and 

 sessile, the lower opposite, the upper alternate ; stigmas club-shaped. 



English Botany, t. 346. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 216. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 183. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 108. 



Root fibrous, with short slender creeping underground stems. A 

 very variable plant in size and luxuriance. Stem erect, from a few 

 inches to two feet high, mostly much branched, sometimes simple, 

 round, rarely indistinctly marked with lines from the angles of the 

 leaves,* smooth, or scattered over with close pressed hairs, sometimes in 

 lines only, while the rest of the stem is quite smooth, and occasionally 

 it is found with spreading hairs. Leaves numerous, opposite in the 

 lower part of the stem, alternate in the upper, narrow, lanceolates 

 sometimes linear, sessile, with a wedge-shaped base, tapering upward, 

 into a bluntish point, smooth, or scattered over with hairs, paler on the 

 under side, with a strong mid-rib and branched lateral veins, the 

 margins entire or irregularly toothed, frequently slightly rolled back. 

 Flowers from the axil of the upper leaves of the stem and branches, at 

 first sessile. Calyx tube nearly cylindrical, clothed with close pressed 

 white hairs, sometimes spreading, the limb of four ovate lauceolate 

 pieces. Petals half as long again as the calyx, inversely heart-shaped, 

 of a pale rose colour. Stamens with simple erect filaments, and small 

 roundish yellow anthers, shorter than the style, with its linear club- 

 shaped stigmas. Capsule very long, on an elongated footstalk, fur- 

 rowed, four valved, four celled, and many seeded, the seeds small, 

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



Habitat. Marshes, wet meadows, banks of rivers, &c. ; frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



9. E. origanifolium, (Lamarck. Diet. 2. p. 376. pub. 1786.) (Fig. 

 626.) Marjoram-leaved Willow herb . Stem simple, smooth, ascending; 

 leaves opposite, nearly smooth, lucid, ovate, acuminate, remotely 

 toothed, shortly petiolated ; stigmas club-shaped. 



De Candolle Prodromus Systematis Naturalis. pars. 3. p. 41. 

 Koch. Flora, German Helv. p. 242. E. alsinifolium, Villars. Dauph. 

 vol. iii. p. 511. pub. 1789. English Botany, t. 2000. English Flora, 

 vol*. ii. p. 216. Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 184. Lindley, Sy- 

 nopsis, p. 108. 



Root small, fibrous, with creeping underground stems, forming 

 matted tufts. Stem ascending, simple, from four to twelve inches 

 high, smooth in the lower part, more or less downy above, marked with 

 two elevated lines, sometimes four. Leaves opposite, above mostly 

 alternate, on short footstalks, ovate lanceolate, or ovate, with an acu- 

 minated point, a pale sub-pellucid green, somewhat glaucous on the 

 under side, quite smooth, with a slender mid-rib and branched slender 

 veins, the margins waved, or distantly and irregularly toothed. Flowers 

 few from the axis of the upper leaves, nearly sessile. Calyx tube almost 

 VOL. i. 4 c 



