A large family, widely distributed, most abundant in America; herbs,
with no stipules; flowers usually perfect, their parts usually in
fours; calyx-tube attached to the usually four-celled, inferior ovary
and usually prolonged beyond it; stamens four or eight, inserted with
the petals, on the throat of the calyx-tube, or on a disk; style single
with a four-lobed or round-headed stigma; fruit usually a four-celled
capsule, containing small seeds or a nut. The flowers are generally
showy and many are cultivated.
[Sidenote: _Eulòbus Califórnicus_
=Yellow
Spring
Southwest=]
This is the only kind of Eulobus. It would be a pretty plant, if more
flowers were out at one time and if they did not close so soon. The
smooth, hollow, loosely-branching stem is from one to three feet tall,
with a "bloom," the leaves are smooth, rather light dull-green, and
the buds are erect. The flowers are about three-quarters of an inch
across, with a very short calyx-tube, light-yellow petals, fading to
reddish-pink, eight stamens, four of them smaller and shorter, and the
light-green stigma with a round top. The slender pods are three inches
long, smooth, cylindrical, and turning stiffly down, with many seeds.
This grows in mountain canyons.
[Illustration: Eulobus Californicus.]
There are a few kinds of Chamaenerion; perennials, often woody at base;
leaves alternate; flowers in clusters, perfect, slightly irregular,
white or purplish; petals four; stamens eight; style threadlike, with a
four-cleft stigma; capsule long, four-sided, containing numerous seeds,
tipped with a tuft of hairs. The calyx-tube is not prolonged beyond the
ovary, which chiefly distinguishes this genus from Epilobium.
[Sidenote: =Fire-weed, Great Willow-herb=
_Chamaenèrion angustifòlium (Epilobium)_
=Purple, pink
Summer
Across the continent=]
A striking and decorative perennial, from two to six feet tall,
with alternate leaves, pale on the under side, the veins making a
scalloped border near the margin, the upper leaves and stems sometimes
slightly downy, and the drooping buds deep reddish-pink or purple.
The flowers form a fine cluster, with small bracts, each flower an
inch or more across, the sepals often pink or purple and the petals
bright purplish-pink; the stamens drooping, with purplish anthers; the
style hairy at base, the capsule two or three inches long. This is
very common, both East and West, reaching an altitude of ten thousand
feet, and often growing in such quantities in the mountains as to cover
large tracts with bright color. The seeds are furnished with tufts of
white, silky hairs, making the plant very conspicuous when gone to
seed, covering it with untidy bunches of pale down and giving a strange
shaggy effect. It often flourishes in places that have been burned
over, hence the name Fire-weed, and Willow-herb is from the leaves and
the silky down on the seeds, suggestive of willows.
[Sidenote: =Water Willow-herb=
_Chamaenèrion latifòlium (Epilobium)_
=Magenta
Summer
Northwest=]
This grows in wet places; the flowers are larger and handsomer than
the last, but it is not so tall. The stems are stout, reddish, and
branching, from six to eighteen inches high, both stem and leaves with
a "bloom," and the leaves are thickish, bluish-green on the upper side
and paler yellowish-green on the under, sometimes toothed, with no
veined border. The buds are deep-red and the flowers form a handsomer
cluster, shorter than the last, with leafy bracts, each flower from one
to over two inches across, with reddish-pink sepals, deep-red outside,
and magenta petals veined with deeper color, sometimes notched, one
petal longer than the others; the anthers purplish; the pistil drooping
and purplish, with a smooth style. This plant is also covered with
tufts of white down when gone to seed. The contrasting purples and reds
of the flowers give a very vivid effect, set off by the bluish-green
foliage, especially when growing among the gray rocks of moraines,
watered by icy glacier streams. It reaches an altitude of ten thousand
feet, growing in the East and in Europe and Asia.
[Illustration: Water Willow-herb--Chamaenerion latifolium.