148 The 
BRiTISACHE RS Ae 
6. Little, fmooth Willowherb. 
Epilobium glabrum minus. 
The root is compofed of numerous fibres. 
The firft leaves are long, narrow, and of a 
pale green ; and they rife in a thick tuft without 
footftalks. 
The ftalk is fingle, upright, flender, rarely at 
all branched, and a foot and half high. 
The leaves are confiderably long, and very 
narrow: they are of a pale glofly green, perfectly 
fmooth, and undivided at the edges, and fharp- 
pointed. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the ftalk, and 
are numerous, large, and of a deep red. 
The feed-veffels are long and thick. 
It is common by rivulets, and flowers in 
June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Ly/imachia glabra anguftifo- 
lia. Others, Ly/fimachia glabra anguftifolia minor, 
/ 
DIVISION IL. FO 
Creeping Willowherb, 
Epilobium repens. 
The root is fmall and fibrous. 
The ftalks are round, weak, and flender: they 
trail upon the ground, and take root as they lie, 
only part of them approaching toward an ereét 
pofture: ‘ 
The leaves ftand regularly in pairs: they are 
fhort, broad, and of an oval figure, pointed at 
the ends, not at all indented at the edges, of a 
deep green colour, and fmooth: thofe toward 
the tops of the ftalks are fmaller and narrower. 
Gin ae 
7. Round-leaved Willowherb. 
_Epilobium foliis fubrotundis. — 
The root is {mall and creeping. 
The ftalk is round, weak, eight or ten inches 
high, of a purplifh colour, and fearce upright : 
it is rarely at all branched. — 
The leaves ftand irregularly, and are not very 
numerous: they are fhort and roundifh, not un- 
like thofe of the common origanum, ‘perfectly 
fmooth, and of a deep fhining green. 
The flowers grow at the top of the ftalks, and 
are fall, of a beautiful'red, and quickly fall off. 
The pods are long and thick, and too heavy 
for the plant to fupport perfeétly. 
The feeds are {mall and cheftnut coloured, and 
the down about them is foft and filvery. 
It is a native of our northern‘hills, where it 
grows by waters; and flowers in Auguft. 
Ray calls it Lyfimachia filiquofa glabra minor 
latifolia. 
REIGN SPECIES. 
The flowers are little, and of a pale red. 
The feed-veffels are long, flender, and have 
no footftalk. 
It is common on ‘the mountains of Switzer- 
land, and flowers in May. 
Haller'calls it Epilobium ‘foliis ellipticis obtufe 
lanceolatis totum leve. 
All the fpecies of epilobium have the fame vir- 
tues: they are cooling and aftringent. The root 
carefully dried and powdered is good againft 
bloody fluxes and other hemorrhages; and the 
frefh juice is of the fame virtue. ; 
U S$ V. 
SP UTR *G cE 
RETH YM ALU S. 
HE flowet is compofed of four petals, which are thick, cut irregularly, and unequal : ‘the cup 
is formed of a fingle piece divided into four fegments; thefe ttand alternately mixed with the 
petals, and all remain together: the feed-veflel is roundith, and contains three cells, in each of which 
there is a fingle, roundifh feed. ; 
Linnzzus places this among the polyandria monog ynia; the threads in each flower being numerous 
and fixed to the receptacle, and the ftyle from the rudiment of the capfule fingle. 
This author joins the /purge with the euphorbium plant, taking away its antient and received name 
tithymalas, and calling all the fpecies eaphorbie , for he writes the generical name euphorbia. 
This is extreamly wrong in two refpects; in the firft'place it is a violation of the order of nature, 
no plants being more unlike than the ephorbia and many of the fpurges in their manner of growing 
and, in the next place, it muft create difficulty and confufion : the fpecies of each genus, when*kept 
diftinét, are very numerous, and the number is immoderate when they are thus uiiited. 
; We fhall fhew, when treating of the exphorbium, that its angulated, flefhy ftalk is a ‘fufficient dif 
tinétion; nor, indeed, are the flowers of that and /purge perfectly alike, though they do in many 
things refemble one another. The perfon who writes for inftruétion fhould ‘endeavour to find, not 
how different genera may be united by fome {mall charaéter they have in common, but by Sus, and 
principally by what moft obvious marks, they are feparated from one another. ; 
; St i 
DIVI- 
