species, but they also exist in many others, as well as in CEnothera and
Ludwigia. This species is very nearly allied to E. tetragonum.
11. E. molle (Torr.): clothed with a very soft and dense velvety pubescence
; stem terete, strict, at length much branched above; leaves alternate
and opposite, crowded, sessile, lanceolate or oblong-linear, rather obtuse,
mostly entire; petals deeply emarginate, twice the length of the calyx;
stigma large, turbinate-clavate; capsules elongated, on very short pedicels.—
Torr.! jl. 1. p. 393, not of Lam. E. strictum, Muhl. cat.; Spreng. syst. 2.
p. 233; Beck, hot. p. 117.
In sphagnous swamps, Western part of New York! to New Jersey! and
Pennsylvania. Sept.—(I) Stem at first nearly simple. Flowers larger than
in E. coloratura, pale purple or rose-color. Capsules about 3 inches long.—
A very distinct species.
12. E. palustre (Linn.): stem terete, (at length) branched, clothed with a
minute crisped pubescence; leaves lanceolate, rather acute, attenuate at the
base, nearly sessile, entire or obsoletely denticulate, the lower ones opposite;
petals rose-color, about twice the length of the calyx; stigma clavate; capsules
pubescent, on short pedicels.—Linn. spec. 1. p. 348; Engl. hot. t. 346;
Lehm. in Hook.fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 207.
0. albijlorufn (Lehm.! 1. c .) : stem slender, at first simple, minutely pubescent;
leaves linear, slightly denticulate; capsules canescent.—E. palustre
var. albescens, Wahl. jl. Suec. 1. p. 234; Richards.! appx. Fra'rikl. journ.
ed. 2. p . 12. E. oliganthum, Michx.! jl. 1. p. 223. E. rosmarinifolium,
Pursh! jl. 1. p. 259. E. lineare, Muhl. cat.p. 39. E. squamatum, Nutt.!
gen. 1. p . 250; DC.! 1. c. E. Dahuricum, Fischer; DC. 1. c. ex Lehm.
E. tenellum, densum, & leptophyllum? Raf. in Desv. jour. hot.; DC. 1. c.
In swamps, Labrador and Northern States ! 0. In sphagnous swamps,
Northern parts of New York! Pennsylvania! and New England States! to
Arctic America! and Oregon! Aug.— 11 ? Stem 1-2 feet high, at length
much branched.—Dr. Richardson and Prof. Lehmann we think correctly
refer this plant to E. palustre. As commonly met with in Pennsylvania and
New Jersey, it differs from the European E. palustre only in its somewhat
narrower leaves; the flowers being frequently rose-color. In deep sphagnous
swamps and more northern regions, it is a smaller plant, often unbranched,
with white or very pale rose-colored flowers. According to Lehmann, a
similar variety is found in Northern Germany. The base of the stem often
bears small seale-like bulbs, as observed by Nuttall.
13. E . minutum (Lindl.): stem erect or ascending, branching, puberu-
lent; leaves mostly alternate, elliptical-lanceolate, rather obtuse, nearly entire,
slightly pubescent; flowers minute, nodding before expansion; stigma
clavate, at length expanded and fimbriate; petals (pale rose-color) obcordate;
capsules short, somewhat pedicelled, slightly arcuate, at length erect. Lindl.!
in Dook.fi,. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 207. Crossostigma Lindleyi, Spach, Onagr. p. 84.
0? joliosum: leaves linear-spatulate, nearly glabrous, with smaller ones
fascicled in the axils; petals nearly white.—E. foliosum, Nutt.! mss.
On moist rocks, Oregon, Menzies, Dr. Scouler! Douglas! Nuttall!
0. Dry rocks, Oregon and the Rocky Mountains o f California, Nuttall!—(T)
Stem 8-12 inches high, often branched from the base. Leaves small, rather
thick, with pellucid dots. Petals a little longer than the calyx. Capsules
about an inch long. 14
14. E. paniculatum (Nutt.! mss.): glabrous, or glandular-pubescent above ;
stem erect, slender, terete, dichotomous above ; leaves narrowly linear, obscurely
serrulate, acute, attenuate at the base, mostly alternate and fascicled;
the uppermost subulate ; flowers few, terminating the spreading filiform and
almost leafless branches; pedicels pubescent; tube of the calyx infundibuli-
form ; petals obcordate, nearly twice the length of the calyx-lobes ; capsules
short, acute at each end, straight or a little curved, erect or spreading.
Oregon, near Fort Vancouver and Straits of Da Fuca, Dr. Scouler! Mr.
Tolmie ! Plains of the Oregon and Rocky Mountains, common, Nuttall!—
(5) Stem 1-3 feet high, very much branched ; the branches naked and very
slender. Flowers nearly as large as in E. palustre, pale red. Stigma
at length 4-lobed. Capsules about an inch long.—A very remarkable species,
which we first received from Dr. Scouler several years since ; but it is
omitted in Hooker’s Flora. Some of our specimens from Mr. Tolmie,
kindly communicated by the generous Hooker, are glabrous throughout;
while others have a fine glandular pubescence.
E. rosmarinifolium (Hsenke) is not a North American plant.
E. pubescens (Roth), which Koch refers to E. parviflorum, Schreb., is given by
Presl in the Reliquae Haenkean® as a native of Nootka. His plant is perhaps our
E. palustre 0. albiflorum.
E. divaricatum (Raf.) (Stem with spreading branches, glabrous ; leaves opposite,
petioled; petals lanceolate, acute, glabrous, unequally denticulate. Raf. in
Desv. jour. bot.; DC. 1. c.) is too imperfectly characterized for identification ; and
if the description be correct as far as it goes, the plant probably belongs to some
other genus.
Subtribe 2. GEnotherea:.—Calyx deciduous from the summit of the ovary
after flowering. Seeds naked.—Leaves alternate. The stamens opposite
the petals sometimes imperfect.
3. CENOTHERA. Linn. ; Juss. gen. p. 319.
Tube of the calyx prolonged beyond the ovary, deciduous; the segments 4,
reflexed. Petals 4, equal, mostly obcordate or obovate, scarcely unguiculate.
Stamens 8, nearly equal, or unequal. Ovary 4-celled, with numerous horizontal
or ascending ovules in each c e ll: stigma 4-lobed or capitate. Capsule
various in form and texturd, 4-valved, many-seeded; the dissepiments
sometimes evanescent: placenta either persistent in the axis, or cohering
■with the dissepiments. Seeds naked, rarely margined at the chalaza or
with a cristate appendage.—Herbs or sometimes suffrutescent plants (chiefly
American), with alternate leaves, and axillary or terminal (often nocturnal or
vespertine) flowers.
In the arrangement of this large genus, we have derived much assistance from
Mr. Spach’s minute Monographia Onagrearum (published in the fourth volume of
the Nouvelles Annales du Museum, a synopsis of which appeared in the Annates
des Sciences Naturelles for 1835), although we do not adopt any of that author’s
genera, except as sections. The seeds of CE. (Megapterium) Missouriensis, which
appears not to have ripened its fruit in Europe, have a curious membranous crest,
which, with the broadly winged capsules, give this species perhaps a better claim to
the rank of a genus than Godetia with its minutely bordered chalaza; but there is
no other peculiarity, and an approach to this appendage is seen in CE. (Lavauxia)
triloba. The genus Sphasrostigma is adopted by excellent botanists ; but if the
species With a globose stigma are to be separated, they should form at least half a
dozen genera, and besides, we have a gradual transition to the ordinary stigma
ofCEnothera. *