368 EPILOBIUM LIGULATUM. [^Murck, 



the quadrifid stigma and the flowers resembling those of E. par- 

 viflorum, which are said to be possessed by that plant. To E. ob- 

 scuro-'pahistre I refer specimens sent to me by Mr. Baker as 

 having been gathered at Gormire in September, 1853. 



The other plant, which I have not seen alive, is represented by 

 specimens from Mr. Baker, which are stated to have been also 

 gathered at Gormire, but in August, 1853. It is probably the 

 E. palustri-obscurum of F. Schultz (^ Archives,' 46) and the E. 

 cJiordorhizum of Grisebach. The specimens agree very well with 

 the description given in the ' Phy tologist ' (I.e.), except that I 

 should call the leaves lanceolate-ligulate, for they are laiiceolate 

 and attenuate at both ends, or, to use the nomenclature of Mr. 

 Woods, they are lanceolate-attenuate-acuminate. I have not 

 seen the seeds of this plant nor the hybernacula, but presume 

 that the former have a slight prolongation of the testa, from Mr. 

 Baker calling them " oblong-fusiform." 



Should E. obscurum and E. palustre grow together at Gormire 

 and the other places where these puzzling plants are found, I 

 should be driven to the conclusion (somewhat against my will) 

 that they are hybrids. And of this the probability is increased 

 by observing that they do not seem to be very constant in form. 



It may be well to add a few words descriptive of the supposed 

 E. obscuro-palustre as cultivated in pots by myself and the Cura- 

 tor of the Cambridge Botanical Garden, and afterwards in the 

 open ground of the latter place, where the hybernacula may now 

 (February, 1858) be seen. 



Stem erect from the end of the hyberuaculum, rather more 

 than two feet high, branched from every axil and forming a ra- 

 ther broad-based pyramid. All the branches produced flowers, 

 and many of them had secondary branches. From the very base 

 of the stem the stoles were starting in the month of August ; 

 they were of a reddish-yellow colour, had very small leaves, and 

 applied themselves closely to the ground throughout their whole 

 length : the lowest branches, which were prostrate for some little 

 distance from their origin, became ascending to flower. Leaves 

 narrowing gradually from a rounded base, with a short haft end- 

 ing in two slightly raised decurrent lines, which gave a rather 

 angular form to the young stem : that angularity becomes less 

 and less apparent as the stem thickens through age. The lowest 

 stem-leaves were rather wedge-shaped at their base ; so also Avere 



