EPILOBIUM, the WILLOW-HERB, in botany: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the octandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 17th order, Galeanthema. The calyx is quadrifid; the petals four; the capsule oblong inferior; the seeds pappous or downy. There are seven species, all of them natives of Britain. They grow in marshes, or under hedges in moist and shady places; having blossoms generally of a red colour, and sometimes of considerable beauty. The most remarkable is the hirsutum, commonly called codlin and cream. The top-shoots of this plant have a very delicate fragrancy; but so transitory, that before they have been gathered five minutes, it is no longer perceptible. Horses, sheep, and goats eat this plant; cows are not fond of it; swine refuse it. An infusion of the leaves of another species, the angustifolium, or rosebay willow-herb, has an intoxicating quality, as the inhabitants of Kamtschatka have learned. These people also eat the white young shoots which creep under the ground, and have a sort of ale brewed from the dried pith of it. The down of the seeds has been lately manufactured by mixing it with cotton or beaver's hair.