1857.] ON THE GORMIllE EPILOBIUM. 19 



Menyanthes trifoliata, and last, but not least, Lysimachia thyrsi- 

 flora. The north-east corner is specially overgrown with vegeta- 

 tion ; and hereabouts, thickly scattered amongst the spongy and 

 treacherous morass, the plant which is the subject of the present 

 notice may principally be seen. It was noticed by IMr. Borrer on 

 his visit to the station about a dozen years ago, and is mentioned, 

 imder the name of virgatum, in the account of his tour in the 

 second volume of the ' Phytologist ' (page 425) . In the ' Sup- 

 plement to the Flora of Yorkshire,^ it is alluded to (page 68) 

 under the head of palustre. Since 1850, I have distributed so 

 many specimens to my private correspondents, and through the 

 medium of the London Botanical Society, that it must have 

 found a place in the herbaria of a large proportion of our col- 

 lectors. In the fasciculus of critical plants which I issued a 

 short time ago it is marked, "No. 9, Epilobium, allied to vir- 

 gatum {chodorhizuni), Fries.'' During the last few years our 

 knowledge of the British representatives of the genus, and their 

 diagnostics, has improved considerably; but the following descrip- 

 tion will suffice to show that, from all that are described in the 

 fourth edition of the ' Manual,' this clearly differs. 



Stem 1| to 2 feet high, much branched above, quadrangular in 

 the lower part, procumbent and creeping widely at the base, send- 

 ing out rootlets and stolons. Stolons numerous, elongated, leafy, 

 at the flowering time slender, the lower ones afterwards thick- 

 ened, and bearing a rosette of obovate leaves. Leaves lanceolato- 

 ligulate, varying considerably Ju breadth, when narrow nearly or 

 quite entire, when broader sparingly denticulated, narrowed more 

 or less gradually below to a deciu-rent haft. Sepals lanceolate ; 

 stigmas entire at first, finally sometimes quadrifid ; seeds about 

 half a line long, oblong-fusiform, broader above. 



The shape of the leaves is quite peculiar. They are usually 

 but little broader than those of palustre, and when wider are 

 narrowed to the base more gradually than in either obscurum or 

 tetragonum. Of the species to which it is most closely allied — 

 from tetragonum, Lamyi, chodorhizum, and obscurum, it may be 

 known by its nutant buds ; from the two former, by its elongated 

 stolons and radicant habit of growth ; from the two latter, by its 

 narrower seeds. From palustre, which at a casual glance it most 

 resembles, the decurrent leaves, angular stem, and tetragonum- 

 like seeds, will sufficiently distinguish it. If it is a new species, 



