132 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
at maturity; segments coloured, deciduous, 4, in a single row. 
Petals none. Stamens 4, inserted in the throat of the calyx, 
much exserted. Ovary solitary, or rarely 2, with a terminal 
style. Stigma dilated, papillose or fimbriate. Achene solitary, 
enclosed in the calyx-tube. 
Perennial herbs, very rarely annuals, with interruptedly-pinnate 
leaves and leaf-like stipules adnate to the petiole. Flowers pur- 
plish, olive, or white, in dense terminal spikes. 
The generic name of these plants comes from the two words sanguis, blood, and 
sorbere, to absorb, from the supposed vulnerary properties of the species. 
SPECIES I-SANGUISORBA OFFICINALIS. Linz. 
Puate CCCCXIX. 
Stem erect, slightly branched, leaves pinnate; leaflets stalked, 
ovate or oblong-oval, sub-cordate at the base, inciso-serrate. 
Flower-heads erect, dark purple, ovoid. Stamens as long as the 
calyx. Plant glabrous. : 
In damp meadows. Rare except in the midland and northern 
counties of England, not extending North of the counties of Berwick 
and Kirkcudbright. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer and Autumn. 
Rootstock somewhat woody, rather thick, slightly branched, 
1; to 4 feet high, producing tufts of radical leaves and solitary 
flowering-stems. Leaves with an odd terminal leaflet, 4 to 6 pair 
of pinnz, which increase a little in size towards the apex of the 
leaf, where they are from 3 to 2 inches long. Lower stipules wholly 
adnate, scarious; those of the upper leaves with a semi-lunate 
denticulated free harbaceous portion: in luxuriant specimens the 
separate leaflets have frequently small rhomboidal denticulated 
stipels. Flower-heads varying from nearly globose to cylindrical- 
ovoid, 3 to 1} inch long. Calyx-tube with 4 winged angles; 
segments spreading, ovate, dark-purple, petaloid. Achene pointed 
at both ends, brownish, smooth and _ slightly shining, closely 
invested by the hardened tube of the calyx. Leaves deep-green, 
paler and glaucous beneath. 
Great Burnet. 
French, Sanguisorbe Officinale. German, Gemeiner Wiesenknopf. 
This plant is cultivated to a considerable extent in Germany for fodder, and has 
been grown here with that view ; but it is not a favourite with English farmers. It was 
formerly in much repute as a vulnerary, and we read that “ Burnet is a singular good 
herb for wounds ; it stancheth bleeding, and therefure was named sanguisorba, as well 
