2935.
EPILOBIUM Ianceolatum.
Spear-leaved Willow-herb.
OCTANDRIA Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Calyx in 4 segments. Petals 4. Capsule
oblong, inferior. Seeds feathered.
Spec. Char. Leaves stalked, lanceolate, irregularly toothed. Stem obsoletely angular. Stigma
slightly lobed. Root fibrous. Scions none. Syn. Epilobium Ianceolatum. Sebast. et Mauri
FI. Rom. Prod. 138. t. 1. f. 2. Tenore “ FI.
Nap. v. 4. 170.” ; Syll. 189. Guss. FI. Sic.
Prod. v. 1. 459. Bertol. FI. Ital. v. 3. 298.
E. montanum var. Ianceolatum. Bab. Man. ed. 2.
115. (not of Koch ?)
R e c o r d e d in Babington’s Manual as a native of Jersey.
Our specimens were sent by Mr. Thwaites from Staple-
ton, near Bristol, where the plant grows abundantly on sandstone,
as well as at Hanham in the same neighbourhood. Mr.
Thwaites has also noticed it near Tintern, Monmouthshire.
It flowers from July to September.
Root perennial, fibrous, producing in early spring rosules
of long bright green sulcate leaves. Stem 1-2 feet high, erect,
obscurely and very bluntly angular, chiefly towards the base,
clothed with a minute ascending curved pubescence, intermixed
in the upper parts, as well as on the ovary and calyx, with
erect, straight, gland-tipped hairs. In very small plants the
stem is simple; in larger it produces axillary branches, which
again are simple or beset in like manner with ramuli. Sometimes
the branches are abbreviated to mere tufts of small
leaves, but in favourable circumstances each is terminated like
the stem by a slightly flexuose raceme, nodding before flowering,
and gradually lengthening and becoming erect as the
flowers expand. Leaves flaccid and mostly dependent, opposite
below, alternate upwards, the uppermost among the
flowers very small, all oblong-lanceolate, tapering to a somewhat
alate stalk of moderate length; they are of a dull green,
smooth to the naked eye and generally more or less shining,
yet covered on both sides with microscopic curved ascending