Fuegia, and which I have little hesitation in referring to E. tetragonum, whilst varieties of it also occur, very similar to other European species. The Falkland Island plant is certainly a native of the Andes of Chili, specimens from whence have been described under the name of E. pedicellare by Presl, and E. denticulatum by "Ruiz and Pavon. The same locality affords E. alpinum, of the Botanical Miscellany (vol. iii. p. 309.), which I can neither distinguish from the British nor from a Tasmanian plant, and which is possibly a state of the Port Famine variety ; in the latter locality the E. alpinum, if it be that species, assumes a much larger and wholly different appearance. The E.Bonplandianum, II. B. K. of Peru (in Herb. Hook.), seems only a very slight variety of E. tetragonum, allied to the E. ahinifoliutii of the Scottish Alps, whose claims to specific distinction have been doubted. From the xYndes of Colombia Professor Jameson has sent a specimen quite similar to Capt. King's from Port Famine. The Chilian E. tetragonum grows abundantly on the mountains of Mexico, and is the E. Bonplandianum of Galeotti (n. 3018, 3028, and 3050), and also apparently the E. Mexieanum of Linden (n. 633.). Further north, in America, the true E. tetragonum is very common on the mountains of Carolina and the southern states, and probably throughout the low grounds of the same latitudes, under the name of E. coloration, Muhl.; in the British possessions it is seen as far north as Lat. 64°.
E. conferlifolium, though very dissimilar in general appearance from E. tetragonum, is not so in reality. Mr. Watson remarks of it, that a more luxuriant growth of the stem, increasing the distance between the leaves, would bring it almost to Capt. King's specimens, and that gentleman has also cultivated Scottish plants of E. alpinum, hardly distinguishable from E. conferlifolium. The latter, he adds, holds the same position between the Port Famine and the British E. tetragonum, that E. origanifolium does in Europe between E. alpinum and E. tetragonum. When such parallel cases of difficulty occur in opposite hemispheres, and in a genus, some of whose species are common to and equally variable in both countries, and when it is further remembered that E. alpinum and E. tetragonum, with many intermediate states, are seen in Tasmania, we may well ask whether there really exist any limits between these and some other supposed species of this intricate genus.
Few persons, accustomed to the study of the British, or even the European Epilobia, are aware of the difficulty of recognizing certain aspects of the well-known species in Asia and America, and still less of the gradations that connect, in the southern regions, what appear abundantly distinct in the northern. We are too apt to assume the well-marked form of a plant, occurring within the narrow sphere of our own researches, as the standard for that species; neglecting the obvious truth, that the limits within which any organized production may vary, are more confined in one locality than in another. Before a native of so narrow an area as Great Britain can be pronounced a species, it must be known under all the phases it assumes in every other part of the globe it inhabits, and its most closely allied congeners should be carefully studied. This remark applies particularly to the Epilobia, which are equally abundant in the southern quarters of the globe and in the northern, and some of whose species are alike common and variable in both.
XV. HALORAGEÆ, Br.
1. MYRIOPHYLLUM, Vaill.
1. Myriophyllum elatinoides, Gaud.; monoicum v. dioicurn, foliis 3-5-natim verticillatis inferioribus capillaceo-multifidis superioribus brevioribus lanceolatis ovatis v. late oblongis interdum oppositis integerrirnis dentatis pinnatiiidisve, floribus S-andris, carpeUis breviusculis late oblongis dorso convexis glaberriniis. M. elatinoides, Gaud, in Ann. So. Nat. vol. v. p. 105. et m Fret/c. Toy. Bot. p. 480. D'Urvitle in Mem. Soc. Linn. Park, vol. iv. p. G18. DC. Prodr. vol. iii. p. 68. M. tematum, Gaud., I/Urv. et DC. 1. c. Hook, et Am. Bot. Miscell. vol. iii. p. 314.
Hab. Falkland Islands ; in fresh-water lagoons and running streams, abundant ; GaudicJiaitd, D'Urvitle and J.D.H.
