aveniis, petalis æqualibus integerrimis, _Ait. Hort. Kew. 2. p. 5._

EPILOBIUM _angustifolium_, var. _Lin. Sp. Pl._

EPILOBIUM flore difformi, foliis linearibus. _Hall, Hist. Helv. p. 427.
n. 1001._

[Illustration: No 76]

Though the _Epilobium_ here figured has not been many years introduced
into this country, it is a plant which has long been well known, and
described.

LINNÆUS makes it a variety only of the _Epilobium
angustifolium_; HALLER, a distinct species, and in our opinion,
most justly.

Those who have cultivated the _Epilobium angustifolium_ have cause to
know that it increases prodigiously by its creeping roots. The present
plant, so far as we have been able to determine from cultivating it
several years, in our Garden, Lambeth-Marsh, has not shewn the least
disposition to increase in the same way, nor have any seedlings arisen
from the seeds which it has spontaneously scattered: we have, indeed,
found it a plant rather difficult to propagate, yet it is highly
probable that at a greater distance from London, and in a more
favourable soil, its roots, though not of the creeping kind, may admit
of a greater increase, and its seeds be more prolific.

It is a native of the Alps of Switzerland, from whence it is frequently
dislodged, and carried into the plains by the impetuosity of torrents.