544 EPILOBIUM. [CLASS VIII. ORDER I. 



Habitat. — Moist shady banks aiid meadows in several parts of 

 England ; more frequent in Scotland, and not very common in Ireland. 

 Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



This very handsome ornamental plant, frequently called Persian or 

 French Willow is frequently cultivated in our gardens, and on the 

 sides of damp hedges, or amongst low shady plantations, has a very 

 beautiful appearance not only when it is in flower, but at all times, as 

 it is a very graceful and elegant plant. It is sometimes found with 

 white flowers, and the whole plant of a paler green ; the leaves are also 

 found much broader than is common, it is then the variety /3. latum 

 (Surness), De Cand. Prod. 3. p. 40, E. angustifolium, /3. Linn. E. 

 spicatwn, De Cand. Fl. Fr. 4, p. 420, E. latifolium, Schmidt. Fl. 

 Bohem. n. 372, not Linn. It is found in all parts of Europe, and in 

 America. It is not by us applied to any other than ornamental pur- 

 poses, but according to Haller, as quoted in Loudon's Encyclopaedia 

 of Plants, p. 319, the young shoots are eaten, although an infusion of 

 the plant stupifies ; the pith when dried is boiled, and becoming sweet 

 is by a proper process made into ale, and this into vinegar by the 

 Kamtschatdales ; it is also added to the cow parsnip, to enrich the 

 spirit that is prepared from that plant. As fodder, it, like all other of 

 the genus, is not of much value, though eaten by most cattle, and 

 the down upon the seeds has been mixed with cotton, &c. and manu- 

 factured into various articles of clothing. 



** LysimacMon. Taueh. De Cand. prod. S, p. 41. Flowers regular . 

 Petals obcordate. Filaments erect. Leaves opposite, the upper 

 ones alternate. 



a. Stigmas four cleft. 



2. E. hirsu'tum, Linn. (Fig. 619.) Great Hairy Willow-herb. Stem 

 round, erect; very hairy, branched; leaves opposite and alternate, 

 oblong, lanceolate, irregularly serrated, amplexicaul, hairy; calyx 

 segments mucronate ; stigmas four-cleft, deflexed. 



English Botany, t. 838.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 21 3.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 183. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 180. — E. am- 

 plexicaule, Lam. Diet. 2, p. 374. 



Root with long creeping underground stems. Stem erect, from four 

 to five feet high, round, mostly much branched in the upper part, 

 leafy, and thickly covered with long soft woolliness, the long slender 

 hairs mostly bearing glands, that exude an unctuous kind of fluid, 

 giving the plant a clammy feeling and a peculiar scent, compared to 

 the flavour of " codlings and cream," which name the plant some- 

 times bears with country people. Leaves opposite, in the upper part 

 alternate, lanceolate or oblong lanceolate, sessile, and embracing the 

 stem, sometimes slightly decurrent, with a strong mid-rib and branched 

 lateral veins, the margins mostly deeply serrated, with numerous in- 

 curved sharp teeth, the upper side deep green, the under paler, and 



