EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY. Onagraceae. 
There are a few kinds of Chamaenerion; perennials, 
often woody at base; leaves alternate; flowers in clusters, 
perfect, slightly irregular, white or purplish; petals four; 
stamens eight; style threadlike, with a four-cleft stigma; 
capsule long, four-sided, containing numerous seeds, 
tipped with a tuft of hairs. The calyx-tube is not pro- 
longed beyond the ovary, which chiefly distinguishes this 
genus from Epilobium. 
A striking and decorative perennial, 
Fire-weed, Great from two to six feet tall, with alternate 
Willow-herb leaves, pale on the under side, the veins 
Ch sri : ‘ 
as phe making a scalloped border near the margin, 
(Epilobium) the upper leaves and stems sometimes 
-Purple, pink slightly downy, and the drooping buds 
jag deep reddish-pink or purple. The 
ccgsitiieaat flowers form a fine cluster, with small 
bracts, each flower an inch or more across, 
the sepals often pink or purple and the petals bright 
purplish-pink; the stamens drooping, with purplish an- 
thers; the style hairy at base, the capsule two or three 
inches long. This is very common, both East and West, 
reaching an altitude of ten thousand feet, and often growing 
in such quantities in the mountains as to cover large tracts 
with bright color. The seeds are furnished with tufts of 
white, silky hairs, making the plant very conspicuous when 
gone to seed, covering it with untidy bunches of pale down 
and giving a strange shaggy effect. It often flourishes in 
places that have been burned over, hence the name Fire- 
weed, and Willow-herb is from the leaves and the silky 
down on the seeds, suggestive of willows. 
This grows in wet places; the flowers 
Water Willow- are iarger and handsomer than the last, 
varia ae but it is not so tall. The stems are stout, 
latifolium reddish, and branching, from six to eigh- 
(E pilobium) teen inches high, both stem and leaves 
RtaETO with a ‘bloom,’ and the leaves are 
actions thickish, bluish-green on the upper side 
and paler yellowish-green on the under, 
sometimes toothed, with no veined border. The buds are 
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