Epilobtom. ONAGRACE^. 



231 



Order XLI. ONAGRACEyE. Juss. The Evening-Primrose Tribe. 



Calyx adherent to the ovary, and produced above it into a tube; the Hmb 4- 

 parted. Petals usually 4 (rarely absent). Stamens as many or twice as many 

 as the petals, and inserted with them into the throat of the calyx. Ovary 

 mostly 4-celled : style elongated ; stigma capitate or 4-lobed. Fruit mostly 

 capsular, with loculicidal dehiscence, or indehiscent. Seeds indefinite or 

 solitary in each cell. Embryo straight.— Herbaceous or sometimes shrubby 

 plants, With entire or toothed leaves. Flowers usually showy, axiUary, or in 

 terminal spikes or racemes. 



Tribe I. ONACfRE^. Torr. ^- Gr. 

 Petals as many and stamens twice as many as the lobes of the calyx, regular. Pollen con 

 nectedby cobweb-like threads. Ovules mostly numerous. Fruit capsular, or rarelu 

 dry and indehiscent. [Stamens 4 in Ludwigia, and some of the species apetalous.) 



CONSPECTUS OF THE GENERA. 



♦ Stamens 8. 



'■ ""rra?! ext;^t "' '"'"°"' '"■" "^ "'"'- ""^'^""^ """' '■""^'- '^^'^^ '^"■""°-'' -"^ ^ '"" °f 

 2. a:.soTBERA. Calyx-tubc prolongea above the ovary. Capsule 4-celIed. Seeds numerous naked 

 i. Gauba. Calyx-tube much prolonged. Capsule mostly one-celled and indehiscent, 1 - 4-seeded. ' 



** Stamens 4. 



'• ''"'cr;:e mostlt."" '"'°"'^'- '''='" ""^" -^"'^ "' "^"'^"- ^'" °PP-^'^ ^^^ ■»"- °f '-^e -lyx. 

 1. EPILOBIUM. Unn. ; Endl. gen. C121. wiLLOW-HEns. 



[ Prom the Greek, epi, upon, and fofos, a pod ; the flower growing at the top of the seed-vessel.] 



Tube of the calyx not produced above the ovary ; the limb 4-parteJ, deciduous. Petals 4. 

 Stamens 8: anthers elliptical or roundish. Stigma 4-lobcd ; the lobes spreading, or co- 

 hering, and then clavate. Capsule linear, 4-sided. 4-celled, 4-valved. Seeds numerous, 

 crowned with a tuft of hairs.- Perennial herbs, with alternate or opposite nearly sessile 

 leaves. Flowers rose-color, purple or white, nodding before expansion. 



• Pclals spreading: stumms and style declined : stigma i-hbed. 



1. Epilobium angustifolium, Linn. Rose-bay Willow-herb. 



Stem erect, simple, mostly smooth ; leaves scattered, lanceolate, remotely denticulate, the 



veins pellucid ; flowers (large) in a long spicate raceme ; petals clawed, obovatc.— Zj/i«'. sp 



1. p. 347; Engl. hot. t. 1947 ; Michx. Jl. \. p. 223 ; Pursh, Jl. I. p. 259 ; Bigcl. Jl. Bost 



