ROSALES.] 



SANGUISORBACE^. 



561 



Order CCXII. SANGUISORBACEiE.— Sanguisorbs. 



Rosacese, § Sanguisorbeae, Jiiss. Gen. 336. (1789) ; DC. Prodr. 2. 588.— Cliffortiaceae, Martins 

 Conspectus, 216 ; Meisner, p. 105. 



Diagnosis. — Bosal Exogens, with apetalous flmvers, a solitary carpel, inclosed in a 

 hardened calyx-tube forming a false pericarp. 



Herbaceous plants or under-shrubs, occasionally spiny. Leaves simple and lobed, or 

 compound, alternate, with stipules. Flowers small, often capitate. Often <^ ? by 



Fig. CCCLXXIX. 



abortion. Calyx with a tlaickened tube and a 3- 4- or 5-lobed limb, its tube lined with 

 a disk. Petals none. Stamens definite, sometimes fewer than the segments of the 

 calyx, with which they are then alternate, arising from the orifice of the calyx ; anthers 

 2-celled, innate, bursting longitudinally, occasionally 1 -celled, bursting transversely. 

 Ovary solitary, simple, with a style proceeding from the apex or the base ; o\v\e soli- 

 tary, always attached to that part of the ovary which is next the base of the style ; 

 stigma compovind or simple. Nut solitary, inclosed in the often indurated tube of the 

 calyx. Seed soUtary, suspended or ascending ; embryo without albumen ; radicle 

 superior or inferior ; cotyledons large, plano-convex. 



This Order, usually combined with Roseworts, appears to demand a distinct station, 

 on account of its constantly apetalous flowers, its hardened calyx, and the reduction of 

 carpels to one only ; it is not, however, distinguishable by any other characters ; and 

 therefore Agrimonia, sometimes stationed here, must be preserved among Roseworts, 

 because of its petals. Its habit, mdeed, is by no means that of Sanguisorbs. Usually 

 the ovule is suspended, the style arising from below the apex of the carpel ; but when 

 the style proceeds from the base of the cai'pel, the ovule is ascendmg, in all cases 

 adhering to the ovary immediately over against the origin of the style. Various kinds 

 of adhesion between the leaves and the stipules take place m the genus ClifFortia, and 

 have given rise to a number of errors ; for an explanation of which, see De Candolle's 

 remarks in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1. 447. 



Natives of heaths, hedges, and exposed places in Europe, North and South America 

 beyond the tropics, and the Cape of Good Hope ; in which latter country they represent 

 the Roseworts of Em'ope. 



Their general character is astringency. A decoction of Alchemilla vulgaris is slightly 

 tonic ; and is asserted, by Frederick Hoffmann and others, to have the effect of restor- 



Fig. CCCLXXIX.— Sanguisorba officinalis. 1. a flower with a pair of bracts ; 2. the same with half 

 the calyx cut away ; 3. a ripe fruit, from which the calyx has been removed ; 4. a vertical section of fruit 

 and calyx ; 5. transverse section of a fruit. 







