Upon the borders of our swift-flowing mountain streams, where the water-ouzel flies up and down all day, sometimes filling the air with melody as he passes, may be seen the large lotus-like leaves of this great Saxifrage. They stand with their dark, warm stems in the water; or, poising upon the brink, they lean gracefully over it, making myriad reflections in the brown depths below, while every passing breeze awakens a quick response among them.
Early in the season, before the coming of the leaves, these plants send up tall stems with dense, branching clusters of handsome purplish-pink flowers. The leaves, small at first, continue to grow until late summer, when they have reached their perfection; after which they begin to deepen into the richest of autumn hues.
[BLEEDING-HEART—Dicentra formosa.]
![[BLEEDING-HEART—Dicentra formosa.]](#3624944100741987669_f089.png.id-8376903333945150102.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
This plant is commonly called "Indian rhubarb," because the Indians are extravagantly fond of the stalks of the leaves and flowers. It is now cultivated in Eastern gardens.
GREAT WILLOW-HERB. FIREWEED.
Epilobium spicatum, Lam. Evening-Primrose Family.
Stems.—Often four to seven feet high. Leaves.—Scattered; willow-like. Flowers.—Purplish-pink; an inch or more across. Calyx-tube.—Linear; limb four-parted; often colored. Stamens.—Eight. Anthers purplish. Ovary.—Four-celled. Seeds silky-tufted. Syn.—E. angustifolium, L. Hab.—The Sierras; eastward to the Atlantic; also in the North Coast mountains. Found also in Europe and Asia.
This plant has received one of its English names, because its leaves are like those of the willow and its seeds are furnished with silken down, like the fluff on the willow.
It is our finest and most showy species of Epilobium, and is also found in the Eastern States, where it is still known by a former name—E. angustifolium, L. Owing to the fact that it grows with special luxuriance in spots which have been recently burned over, it is commonly known as "fireweed." It may be found in perfection in the Sierras in August, where its great spikes of large pink flowers make showy masses of color along the streams and through the meadows, commanding our warmest admiration.