128 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Graceful thy foliage and thy hue, 
In softest shades of green and blue, 
Attracting still a closer view, 
They fix the admiring eye.” 
The green parts of the herb partake of the aromatic character of the flowers, when 
rubbed or chewed. ‘The flowers infused in boiling water give it a very fine flavour, 
which rises in distillation. Gerarde tells us: “It is reported that the floures boiled 
in wine and drunke, do take away the fits of a quartaine ague, and make the heart 
merrie. The distilled water of the floures dropped into the eies, taketh away the burning 
and itching thereof, and cleareth the sight.” 
SPECIES IIL—SPIRHA FILIPENDULA. Lina. 
Puate CCCCXVI. 
Herbaceous. Root-fibres with ovoid tubercular enlargements. 
Leaves pinnate, with very numerous pairs of unequal leaflets ; 
larger leaflets oblong or strap-shaped, pinnatifid, with the segments 
frequently toothed, the smaller ones merely toothed (sometimes the 
large ones are opposite each other, and alternate with the small 
ones; more frequently each small one is placed opposite a large one, 
and the arrangement of each kind is alternate); all glabrous beneath. 
Stipules of the radical leaves wholly adnate, oblanceolate, those of 
the stem-leaves half-oblong, cordate, dentate. Flowers in a com- 
pound corymbose cyme, with the lower branches ascending, not 
much overtopping the interior ones. Petals with the lamina 
obovate. Follicles 6 to 12, downy, straight. 
In dry pastures and among bushes, especially in calcareous and 
trap districts. Not uncommon in England, becoming rarer towards 
the North-west. Scarce in Scotland, where it is confined to the 
East coast, though extending as far North as Forfarshire. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
Rootstock emitting numerous fibres with clavate or bead-like 
enlargements. Stem erect, 1 to 8 feet high, deeply striated, green 
or purplish. Radical leaves numerous, with very eos pinnee ; 
larger leaflets 4 inch long, the alternate small ones } to } inch, the 
terminal one trifid but not equalling 3 of the larger “leaflets as 
its lateral divisions are smaller than the central. Cyme more 
evidently corymbose than in 8. Ulmaria, the lower branches 14 to 
5 inches long. Flowers } to $ inch across, cream-white, frequently 
tinged with reddish on the outside. Calyx-segments ovate, blunt, 
reflexed in flower. Stamens shorter than the petals, which are 
attenuated into short but conspicuous claws. Follicles not con- 
