218 TETRANDRIA— MONOGYNIA. Sanmiisorba. 



o* 



as long as the stam. Stigma notched. Caps, quadrangular, 

 hard, not bursting, of 1 cell. Seed 1, or 2, elliptical. 



Herbaceous, with pinnate, serrated leaves. Spikes dense, the 

 upper JIoxiDcrs earliest. Germen with 2 or 4 hracteas at the 

 base. 



The unquestionable affinity of this genus to the natural class 

 Icosandria of Linneeus, induces me to conform to Jussieu's 

 ideas, so far as to take for a cali/i\ what Linnaean botanists 

 have hitherto called corolla. Yet even Jussieu candidly 

 expresses his doubts in this case ; and I am well aware of 

 the danger of allowing metaphysical speculations, to inter- 

 fere with common sense, in Botany or any other science. 

 Whether the originally thin outer coat of the germen 

 should be taken for the body or tube of the calyjc^ as in 

 Rosa^ may admit of a question. That and the rest of the 

 germen certainly become together a hardened pericarp^ or 

 capsule, which part in Rosa is pulpy. I have seen but 1 

 seed, and 1 style in Sanguisorba, as represented by La- 

 marck. Jussieu describes 2. 



1. S. officinalis. Great Burnet. 



Spikes ovate. 



S. officinalis. Linn. Sp. PL 169. fVilld. v. J . 653. Fl. Br. 186. 

 Engl Bot. V. 19. /. 1312. Mart. Rust. t. 142. Hook. Scot. 54. 

 Fl.Dan. t.97. 



S. major, flora spadiceo. Raii Sijn. 203. Bduli. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 

 120./. 



S. major. Fuchs. Hist.7S8.f. 



Pimpinella n. 705. Hall. Hist. ?;. 1.31 1. 



P. sive Sanguisorba major. Matth. Valgr. v. 2.330. f. Camer. 

 EpiL77S.f. 



P. sylvestris. Ger. Em. 1045. 



In meadows and pastures, on a calcareous soil, that are rather 

 moist ; chiefly in the north of England ; more sparingly in the 

 lowlands of Scotland. 



Perennial. June, July. 



Root strong, somewhat woody, astringent. Hero smooth. Stem 

 2 feet high, erect, furrowed, leafy 3 panicled above. Leaves of 

 4 or 5 pair of heart-shaped, stalked, obtuse, strongly serrated, 

 veiny leciflets, with or without small sessile intermediate ones : 

 those on the stem alternate, smallest, with a pair of large, round- 

 ed, cut stipulas, united to the base of the common footstalk: 

 radical ones Vvuth very long footstalks. Spikes about an inch 

 long, dull purple, dense, on long flower-stalks. Bracteas green, 

 fringed, 4 under each flower 3 the calyx of Linnaeus. Cat. very 

 hairy externally at the base. Stigma 4-clcft. Seed solitary. 



