EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY. Onagraceae. 



There are a few kinds of Chamaenerion ; perennials, 

 often woody at base; leaves alternate; flowers in clusters, 

 perfect, slightly irregular, white or purplish; petals four; 

 stamens eight; style threadlike, with a four-cleft stigma; 

 capsule long, four-sided, containing numerous seeds, 

 tipped with a tuft of hairs. The calyx-tube is not pro- 

 longed beyond the ovary, which chiefly distinguishes this 

 genus from Epilobium. 



A striking and decorative perennial, 

 Fire-weed, Great f ror n two to six feet tall, with alternate 

 Willow-herb leaves, pale on the under side, the veins 



Chamaenerion . 



angustifdlium making a scalloped border near the margin, 

 (Epilobium) the upper leaves and stems sometimes 



Purple, pink slightly downy, and the drooping buds 



Summer d reddish-pink or purple. The 



Across the H v ' 



continent flowers form a fine cluster, with small 



bracts, each flower an inch or more across, 

 the sepals often pink or purple and the petals bright 

 purplish-pink; the stamens drooping, with purplish an- 

 thers; the style hairy at base, the capsule two or three 

 inches long. This is very common, both East and West, 

 reaching an altitude of ten thousand feet, and often growin 

 in such quantities in the mountains as to cover large trac 

 with bright color. The seeds are furnished with tufts o 

 white, silky hairs, making the plant very conspicuous whe 

 gone to seed, covering it with untidy bunches of pale dowi 

 and giving a strange shaggy effect. It often flourishes i 

 places that have been burned over, hence the name Fire 

 weed, and Willow-herb is from the leaves and the silk 

 down on the seeds, suggestive of willows. 



This grows in wet places; the flowers 

 Water Willow- are larger and handsomer than the i ast) ! 



Chamaenerion ^ ut ^ * S not SO ta ^' ^he stems are Stout, 



latijdlium reddish, and branching, from six to eigh- 



(Epilobium) teen inches high, both stem and leaves 



Magenta with a "bloom," and the leaves arc 



Summer , . , . . , , . , 



Northwest thickish, bluish-green on the upper side 



and paler yellowish-green on the under 

 sometimes toothed, with no veined border. The buds an 



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