314 Mr. C. C. Babington on some species 0/ Epilobium. 



inches long. Leaves shining, subpellucid, glabrous. Lowest 

 leaves blunt. Flowers large, purplish, few. Capsules very 

 long, upright, long-stalked. Seeds narrowed at both ends, and 

 continued gradually into a great prolongation of the testa at ihe 

 top, causing the beard (pappus) to appear to be stalked. 



It inhabits the lofty mountains of Scotland; the Great 

 Cheviot in Northumberland; Cronkley Fell, Teesdale, York- 

 shire; Fail-field, Westmoreland; at and above Aber Waterfall, 

 Caernarvonshire, 



It is not easy to describe the great difference in appearance 

 that exists between E. alpinum and E. anagallidifolium, and 

 therefore they will doubtless seem to the reader to be far more 

 alike than is really the case. I have never seen in E. alpinum 

 the remarkable prostrate rooting flowerless shoots which are 

 characteristic of E. anagallidifolium, and which are as different 

 from the ratlier loose rosettes of E. alpinum as they are from the 

 stoles of E. palustre. The short leafy stems forming the loose 

 rosettes of E. alpinum do not become creeping stems nor true 

 stoles. The sepals may perhaps afford a certain distinction 

 between them. 



It must be added, that I have no acquaintance with the sup- 

 posed differences between E. alpinum and E. anagallidifolium as 

 they appear in the living plant, and that it is often difficult to 

 tell accurately to which of them dried specimens ought to be 

 referred. Well-developed and complete specimens are so very 

 different, that there is little ground for hesitation in admitting 

 two plants as natives of the Scottish mountains which have such 

 markedly different modes of growth as to render it highly pro- 

 bable that they are distinct species. The identification of these 

 plants with the E. alpinum of Scandinavia and of the Alps, 

 respectively, does not, I think, admit of doubt. Botanists will 

 do well if they direct their attention to the interesting question 

 of their specific distinctness. 



Scottish botanists should look carefully for the E. lineare 

 (jNIiihl.) which is found on the mountains of Scandinavia, and 

 may very probably inhabit those of Scotland. It closely re- 

 sembles both E. alpinum and E. palustre. From the former, to 

 which it appears to be the most nearly allied, it may be di- 

 stinguished by its linear obtuse denticulate leaves ; its sepals, 

 although of the same sliape, are apparently blunt ; its flowers 

 are "white," or "cream-coloured." From E. palustre it is 

 at once known by "vegetatio ceespitosa ob rosulas ad basin 

 sessiles," and the total want of the slender stoles of that 

 species. 



It is hardly necessary to expend many words upon the dif- 

 ferences of E. alsinifolium from the two plants above mentioned, 



