CLASS V, ORDER II.] ^QOPODIUM. 363 



The seeds, when bruised, have a pungent aromatic smell; hut when 

 young, they, like the rest of the plant, have a disagreeable odour, 

 resembling, according to Smith, that of Bug9. 



GENUS LV. ^GOPO'DIUM.— Linn. Goutweed. 



Gen. Char. Calyx margin obsolete. Petals obovate, notched and 

 curved with an inflexed point. Fricit oblong, laterally com- 

 pressed. Carpels with five filiform rid(/es, the lateral ones forming 

 the margin. Channels without vitta. Albumen roundish, con- 

 vex, somewhat jilain in front. General and partial involucre 

 wanting. — Name from a(|, cAyoi;, a goat ; and Ti-ovg, a foot, from 

 the supposed resemblance of the leaves to a goat's foot. 

 1. y2i. Poclaf/ra'ria, Linn. (Fig. 427.) Goutiveed, or Herb Gerarde. 

 English Botany, t. 941. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 77. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 129. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 123. 



Root long, creeping, putting up stems at various distances. Stem 

 erect, from one to two feet high, round, smooth, furrowed, branched 

 above, and leafy. Leaves smooth, with a strong mid-rib and numerous 

 lateral branched veins, pale and somewhat glaucous beneath, the 

 radical ones on long footstalks, twice ternate, the leaflets ovate- 

 lanceolate, with an acute point, the lateral ones mostly obliquely cut 

 on the upper side, and the terminal one larger and broader, the upper 

 ones mostly o])posite, ternate, narrower, lanceolate, more unequally and 

 acutely serrated than the lower ones, and the footstalks of the leaf 

 broadly dilated and sheathing the stem. Umbels terminal, the general 

 of numerous unequal angular rays, smooth, or sometimes downy, as 

 are the more numerous short unequal rays of the partial umbels. 

 Involucre both general and partial wanting. Flou-ers white. Calyx 

 an obtuse margin. Petals obovate, slightly notched at the extremity 

 from the inflexed point, which is slender, and about half as long as the 

 petal. Stamens with slender filaments, and small round anthers. 

 Styles long, slender. Stigmas somewhat globose, obtuse. Carpels 

 with five slender filiform ridges, three on the back, and two lateral 

 ones forming the margins, the channels without vittee. Albumen on a 

 transverse section, convex at the back, plain in front. 



Habitat. — Gardens, under hedges, and wet places; frequent. 

 Perennial; flowering in May and June. 



Gout-weed by the ancients was supposed to possess active properties 

 that were of considerable use in the relief of gout, (hence its English 

 name), used in the form of poultice; but whatever arthritic virtues it 

 may have possessed, appear now to have degenerated, and it has 

 fallen into disuse. 



VOL. I. 3 B 



