GEUM URBANUM. ORD. XXVII. Senticose. 503 
monly pinnated, hairy, toothed; pinnz two pair, of which the 
lower are almost circular ; the upper pair elliptical ; terminal leaf 
the largest, and frequently cut into three lobes. Flowers terminal, 
on long hairy peduncles. Calyx divided into three segments, 
which are alternately large and small. Corolla composed of five 
roundish yellow petals, widely spreading from each other. | Fila- 
ments numerous, yellowish, tapering, inserted into the calyx. 
Anthere roundish. Germina many, hairy, collected into an 
orbicular shape. Styles jointed in the middle, enlarged at the top, 
and furnished with simple stigmata. Seeds numerous, compressed, 
rough, crooked near the extremity, terminated by a long arista. 
It is a common British plant, in woods and hedges, flowering 
from June till August. 
The root, which is the part of this plant medicinally employed, 
has an aromatic and somewhat astringent taste, and a pleasant 
smell of the clove kind, especially when it is produced in dry and 
warm soils.“ It gives out its astringent matter equally to watery 
and spirituous menstrua ; its aromatic part most perfectly to the 
latter. In distillation with water it yields a small quantity of a 
whitish concrete oily matter, of a very grateful fragrance.”* 
According to Buchhave it yields a greater —— of watery 
than of resinous extract. 
This plant, though little used in Britain, is held in great estima- 
tion on the Continent, where its virtues have been long considered 
as extremely various: but the character in which it has been 
lately received, and most particularly celebrated since the year 
1780, is that of a febrifuge; thus Buchhave,’ Aaskow, Callisen, 
Bang, Schénheyder, and Tode, also Weber and Koch,* Anjou,’ &c. 
all bear testimony of its efficacy, adducing numerous instances of 
* Lewis, 1. c. : > Obs. circa radicem Get urd. : 
© Diss. de nonnullorum febrifugorum virtute, et speciatim Get urbani radicis efficacia, 
* Diss. de radice Caryophyllate. 
