172 ONAGRACEVE. [Epilobium. 



and pastures; extremely common. Fl. June? — September. Fr. September, 

 October. 2^. 



Root creeping, horizontal, with several short, thick, fleshy tubercles. Stem 

 bushy, erect, 4—6 feet high,* round, solid, much branched, covered like the rest 

 of the plant with a copious, very soft, white, viscid down. Leaves la.nceolate or 

 ovato-lanceolate ; lower ones opposite, a litile decurrent ; upper ones partly alter- 

 nate, all sessile, denticulato-serrate, soft and downy. Flowers in leafy corymbose 

 clusters, nearly an inch across, bright purplish pink netted with bluish veins. 

 Sepals ovalo-lanceolate, mucronato-acuminate. Petals regular, roundish heart- 

 shaped, with a deep notch, greatly exceeding the calyx in length. Stamens erect, 

 unequal, having a row of white connivent hairs between them and the germen ; 

 anthers pale yellow. Style erect, glabrous ; stigma 4-clefl, rough, the segments 

 revolute and obtuse. Capsules 2 — 3 inches in length, furrowed, clothed either 

 with short erect pubescence, or shaggy with long, silky, spreading hairs. Seeds 

 grayish brown, obovoid-oblong, semiterete, flatti h on one side with 2 fbveae and 

 an intermediate ridge, the apex with a minute apioulus ; thickly covei-ed with short 

 bristle-like points ; pappus closely sessile. 



The whole herb has a peculiar subacid smell, residing, I believe, in the glandu- 

 lar pubescence of the stem and leaves, which has been compared to that of scalded 

 codlings and cream, or of gooseberry fool. 



3. E. parviflorum, Sclireb. Small-floivered Hairy Willow-herb. 

 " Leaves lanceolate sessile slightly toothed downy on both sides, 

 stem nearly simple very downy or nearly glabrous, root fibrous, 

 stigma 4-cleft."— Sr. Fl. p. 135. E. B. t. 795. 



By rivers, brooks and ditches, in moist places along hedges, lanes and roadsides, 

 in damp woods and thickets ; frequent, but less abundant than the last. Fl. June 

 — September. Fr. September, October. If. 



E. Med. — By Quarr Abbey. Woods near the Priory, &c. Plentiful along the 

 lane between the Brading road and Smallbrook farm. Abundant in Whitefleld 

 wood. 



W. Med. — At Freshwater, with white and often both white and red flowers on 

 the same stem. 



Root of several rigid, pale, branched fibres, but not creeping or sending out 

 sucker.s. Stem erect, firm, leafy, a little oblique at the very base, green and pur- 

 plish on opposite sides, from about 1 to 3 feet in height, rounded, downy with 

 copious, very soft, while and spreading pubescence, which on the higher part and 

 on the branches becomes shorter, less soft and abundant, and glandulose, secreting 

 globules of a viscid fluid ; nearly simple or branching only towards its summit, 

 the branches few, alternate, erecto-pateiit, scarcely again divided. Leaves in the 

 larger plants often 3 or 4 inches long, dull somewhat hoary green, very soft and 

 downy, more or less erect or spreading, lancf ulate or rather oblong-lanceolate, 

 subpetiolale, towards the base of the stem oppnbite, higher up and ou the branches 

 mostly alternate ; acute, finely and rather closely denticulato-serrate, the serra- 

 tures purplish and glandular ; subcordate at base but not clasping. Flowers in 

 elongating leafy clusters, terminating the stem and branches, about \ an inch in 

 diameter, on very short but distinct pedicels; seldom widely expanded, erect. 

 Ca/yac shorter than the corolla, ii little downy; sepals elliptical or oblong-ellipti- 

 cal, with short, thick, glandular points. Petals obovato-elliptical, pale pink or 

 purplish, sometimes white or nearly so, I'eeply emarginate, strongly veined. 

 Stamens with white converging hairs between them ; anthers roundish oiate; (in 

 £. hirsutiim they are elliptical-oblong). Siyle erect, glabrous, nut exceeding the 

 stamens ; (in E. hirxutvm it is a little longer than the stamens) ; stigmas at length 

 spreading but not revolute. Capsules erect or patent, straight or curved, 3J inches 

 or less in length and scarcely a line in width, with 4 prominent blunt angles, pu- 

 bescent, greenish or reddish. Seeds brownish, obovoid-oblong, slightly incurved, 



* I have seen them 7 or 8 feet in the Sv.'.nn Pool, near Ryde. 



