ONAGRACE^E. (EVENING-PRIMROSE FAMILY.) 177 



hiscent or nearly so, usually becoming 1-celled and 1 -4-seeded. Seeds naked. 



— Leaves alternate, sessile. Flowers rose-color or white, changing to reddish 

 in fading, in wand-like spikes or racemes ; in our species quite small (so that 

 the name, from yavpos, superb, does not seem appropriate). 



1. G. biennis, L. Soft-hairy or downy (3° - 8° high) ; leaves oblong -lanceo- 

 late, acute, denticulate ; fruit oval or oblong, nearly sessile, ribbed, downy. — 

 Dry banks, from New York westward and southward : common. Aug. 



2. G. filipes, Spach. Nearly smooth; stem slender (2° -4° high) ; leaves 

 unear, mostly toothed, tapering at the base ; branches of the panicle very slen- 

 der, naked ; fruit obovate-club-shaped, 4-angled at the summit, slender pedicelled- 



— Open places, Virginia to Ohio, Illinois, and southward. Aug. 



3. EPILOBIUM, L. Willow-herb. 



Calyx-tube not prolonged beyond the ovary ; the limb 4-clcft, deciduous. Pet- 

 als 4. Stamens 8 : anthers short. Pod linear, many-seeded. Seeds with a tuft 

 of long hairs at the end. — Perennials, with nearly sessile leaves, and violet, 

 purple, or white flowers; in summer. (Name composed of enl Xo/3o0 tov, viz. 

 a violtt on a pod. ) 



* Flowers large in a long spike or raceme : petals widely spreading, on claws, entire : 



stamens and style turned downwards : stigma of 4 long lobes : leaves scattered. 



1. E. angustifdlium, L. (Great Willow-herb.) Stem simple, tall 

 (4° -7°) ; leaves lanceolate. — Low grounds, especially in newly cleared land : 

 common northward. — Flowers pink-purple, very showy. (Eu.) 



* * Flowers rather large, ngular : petals obcordate : stamens and style erect ; stigma 



of 4 long linear lobes : leaves mostly opposite. 



2. E. hiesutum, L. Soft-hairy, branching (3° -5° high); leaves lance- 

 oblong, serrulate ; flowers in the upper axils or in a leafy short raceme ; petals 

 rose-purple, 6" long. — Spontaneous in waste grounds, New Bedford, Mass. 

 (T. A. Greene) and Roxbury (D. Murray) ; and in a ravine near Albany, New 

 York (C. H. Peck). (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers small, corymbed or panicled : petals (mostly notched at the end), sta, 



mens, and style erect : stigma club-shaped, nearly entire : lower leaves opposite, 

 entiie or denticulate. 



3. E. alpinum, L. Low (2< -6' high), nearly glabrous; stems ascending 

 from a stoloniferous base, simple ; leaves elliptical or ovate-oblong, obtuse, nearly 

 entire, on short petioles ; flowers few or solitary, drooping in the bud ; petals 

 purple ; pods long, glabrous. — Alpine summits of the White Mountains of 

 New Hampshire, and Adirondack Mountains, New York. (Eu.) 



Var. majUS, Wahl. Taller ; upper leaves more or less acute and toothed, 

 pod glabrous or somewhat pubescent. (E. alsinifolium, Vill. E. origanifolium, 

 Lam.) — With the typical form : also upper Wisconsin and Michigan. (Eu.) 



4. E. palustre, L., var. lineare. Erect and slender (l°-2° high), 

 branched above, minutely hoary -pubescent ; stem roundish ; leares narrowly lanceo- 

 late or linear, nearly entire ; flower-buds somewhat nodding ; petals purplish or 

 white; pods hoary. (E. lineare, Mutl E. squamatum, Nutt.) — Bogs, N 



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