208 THE (ENOTHEEA. FAMILY. 



high, cylindrical, without any decurrent lines or angles, and usually gla- 

 brous or slightly hoary ; the autumnal offsets usually short, and some- 

 times sessile. Leaves shortly stalked, or sometimes almost sessile, ovate or 

 broadly lanceolate, and toothed. Flower-buds erect or slightly nodding ; 

 ovai-y downy, tapering into a stalk at the base, and crowned by a calyx 2 or 

 3 lines long, divided below the middle into 4 reddish lobes. Petals pink, 

 usually nearly twice as long, but sometimes scarcely exceeding the calyx, 

 always deeply notched. Style divided at the top into 4 oblong, spreading, 

 stigmatic lobes. Pod slender, 2 to 3 inches long. 



In waste and cultivated places, roadsides, woods, etc., througliout Europe 

 and Russian and central Asia, and apparently in many other parts of the 

 globe. Very abundant in Britain. Fl. summer. It varies much in the 

 size of the flowers, which are in di-y situations often nearly as small as in 

 the faU E., from which it is then chiefly distinguished by the deeply-cleft 

 stigma. 



5. Pale Epilobe. Epilobium roseum, Schreb. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 693.) 



An erect plant, glabrous or hoary when young, much resembling at first 

 sight a smaU-flowered hroad IS., but the leaves are narrower, on longer 

 stalks, the lower ones generally opposite, with a raised hne descending more 

 or less along the stem fi'om the junction of the leafstalk on each side, almost 

 as in the square E. They vai-y from ovate-lanceolate to narrow-oblong, ani 

 from 1 to 3 inches in length. Flowers in a short, terminal, leafy, branched 

 raceme or panicle ; the Hmb of the calyx hardly 2 hues long, and the notched 

 petals not much longer. Buds erect or slightly nodding, the style ending in 

 a club-shaped stigma, either entire or very shortly 4-lobed. Pods from 1 to 

 2 inches long. 



Along ditches, and in moist situations, in Em-ope and Eussian Asia, but 

 not so common aseither the preceding or tlie following species, nor extending 

 so far to the north. Scattered over several parts of Britain, but being oft«a 

 confounded with the broad E. or the hoary E., its real distribution is very 

 uncertain. Fl. summer. Specimens in which the stigma is slightly lobed 

 have been distinguished under the name of F:. lanceolatum (Eng. Bot. 

 Suppl. t. 2935, the style much more lobed than it should be). 



6. Square Epilobe. Epilobium tetragonum, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1948. F. obscurum, Bab. Man.) 



Stems erect, often much branched, 1 to 2 feet high, glabrous, or hoary 

 with a very short down, and more or less angular from raised lines de- 

 scending on ea«h side from the margins of the leaves ; the autumnal offsets 

 often loug and threadhke, with a fleshy bud at the extremity, more rarely 

 short and scaly or leafy, as in the broad E. Leaves sessile or nearly so, 

 narrow, and toothed. Flowers small, in terminal leafy racemes, the buds 

 c-rect, the petals deeply notched. Stigma entu-e and club-shaped. Pod 

 often very long. 



In wet ditches and watery places, throughout Europe, Eussian Asia, and 

 a portion of Nortli America, and extenchng to the Arctic Circle. Common 

 ill Britain, excepting in the north of Scotland. Fl. summer. Specimens 

 with fihform scions have been distinguished under the name of F. vir- 

 gatum. 



