148 
The BRITISH HERBAL. 
6. Little, fmooth Willowherb. 
Epilobium glabnim 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 Tingle, 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 gloffy green, perfedliy 
fmooth, and undivided at the edges, and fliarp- 
pointed. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the ftalk, and 
are numerous, large, and of a deep red. 
The fecd-veffels are long and thick. 
It is common by rivulets, and flowers in 
June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Lyfimachia glahra anguftifo- 
iia. Others, Lyfimachia glabra anguftifolia yninor, 
DIVISION II. F O 
Creeping Willowherb. 
Epilobium 7-epens. 
The root is fmall and fibrous. 
The ftaiks are round, weak, and flender : they 
trail upon the ground, and take root as they lie, 
only part of them approaching toward an ere£t 
poll u re; 
The leaves Hand 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 ftaiks are fmaller and narrower. 
7. Round-leaved Willowherb. 
Epilobium foliis fuhrotundis. 
The root is fmall and creeping. 
The ftalk is round, weak, eight or ten inches 
high, of a purplifh colour, and fcarce upright : 
it is rarely at all branched. 
The leaves ftand irregularly, and are not very 
numerous : they are Ihort and roundilh, not un- 
like thofe of the common origanum, perfeftly 
fmooth, and of a deep fliining green. 
The flowers grow at the top of the ftaiks, and 
are ftnall, of a beautiful red, and quickly fall off. 
The pods are long and thick, and too heavy 
for the plant to fupport perfefl:!y. 
The feeds arc fmall and cheftnut coloured, and 
the down about them is fofc 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. ■ ^" 
c r.i 
vi.'; -i.-iT 
The flowers are little, and of a pale red. 
The feed-vcflTels 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 dlipticis obtufe 
lanceolatis totiim lave. 
All the fpecies of epilobium have the fame vlr-- 
tues : they are cooling and aftringent. The root 
carefully dried and powdered is good againfl: 
bloody fluxes and other hemorrhages j and the 
frefti juice is of the fame virtue. 
GENUS V- 
SPURGE. 
rirUTMALUS. 
THE flower is compofed of four petals, which are thick, cut irregularly, and unequal : the cup 
is formed of a Angle piece divided into four fegments ; thefe ftand alternately mixed with the 
petak, and all remain together : the feed-veflTel is roundifti, and contains three cells, in each of which 
there is a Angle, roundifti feed. 
LinniEus places this among the polyandria monogynia ; the threads in each flower being nurnerous, 
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 
tilhymulus, and calling all the fpecies euphorbia \ lor he writes the gcnerical name euphorbia. 
This is excreamly wrong in two refpeils ; in the firft place it is a violation of the order of nature, 
no plants being more unlike than the euphorbia 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 
diftindt, are very numerous, and the number is immoderate when they are thus united. 
We lhall fliew, when treating of the euphorbium^ that its angulated, flefhy ftalk is a fufficient dif- 
tin^lion-, nor, indeed, are the flowers of that and y^^wr^e perfeilly alike, though they do in many 
things refemble one another. The perfon who writes for inftru6tion ftaould endeavour to find, not 
how different genera may be united by fome fmall charader they have in common, but by what, and 
principally by what moft obvious marks, they are feparated from one another. 
D I V I- 
