242 Mr. C. C. Babiugton on some species o/Epilobiuni. 



does represent is a more difficult point to decide, and no attempt 

 is now made to do it. There is only one specimen preserved in 

 the Linnsean Herbarium with the name and authenticating 

 marks of E. tetragonum. The place where it grew is not stated, 

 and there is no clue to its history. It is not E. tetragonum, 

 nor either of its close allies, but appears to be the plant now 

 universally called E. roseum. It seems probable that Linnseus 

 was led by this specimen into the mistake of altering the specific 

 character of his plant and adding the erroneous remark. It is 

 scarcely necessary to observe, that these alterations are derived 

 from the peculiarities of E. roseum. 



E. tetragonum is perhaps a less common plant in Britain than 

 E. obscurum. My specimens are from Glen Falloch, Perth- 

 shire ; Congestone, Leicestershire ; Cambridge ; Stapleton, 

 near Bristol; Sussex; Sidmouth, Devon; Cork; and the 

 Channel Islands. 



H. obscurum (Schreb.) ; stoles with distant leaves, stem erect, leaves 

 tapering from a rounded base sessile remotely denticulate faintly 

 decurrent, lower leaves oblong blunt, buds erect, sepals linear lan- 

 ceolate, seeds obovate-oblong tubercular. 

 *' ChamEenerium obscurum, Schreb. Spic. Fl. Lips. 147." 

 Epilobium obscurum, Reichenb. Iconog. t. 199. et Fl. excurs. p. 634 ; 

 Roth, Fl. Germ. ii. 438. et En. PI. ii. 1.52 ; Fries, Herb. Norm. 

 viii. 42 (specimen); Griseb. in Bot. Zeit. 1852, p. 853; F. 

 Schultz, Arch, de Flore, i. 218 et ii. 49. 

 E. virgatum, Gren. et Godr. Fl. de Fr. i. 578 ; Bonder, Fl. Hamb. 

 217. 



Stem ultimately branching from the base as in E. tetragonum, 

 and the whole plant closely resembling that species. In wet 

 places the lateral stems are more or less decumbent, and rooting 

 in their lower part. Stoles in dry places rather short and thick ; 

 all their leaves in distant pairs, small, successively enlarged, but 

 not forming a rosette : in wet places they are long and some- 

 times branch; their leaves are oval, but narrowed below. It is 

 only in the spring, when the new stems are commencing from 

 the ends of the stoles, that anything resembling a rosette is 

 found. In plants resulting from the stoles of the preceding 

 year, it is the end of the stole itself that throws out roots, and 

 sends directly upwards a single erect stem, which, at about the 

 time of flowering, begins to branch from most of its axils ; the 

 lowermost buds producing stoles, the others flowex'ing shoots. 

 Individuals of this kind have therefore usually a short prostrate 

 base, placed often at a right angle to it, and belonging really 

 to the growth of the preceding year. The capsules are much 

 shorter than those of E. tetragonum. The seeds of similar form 

 with those of that species. 



