138 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Var. a, genuia. 
Petioles and underside of leaves sub-glabrous. 
Var. 6, montana. Willd. 
A. montana, Willd. Enum. 170. 
A. vulgaris, 3 subsericea, Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ. et Helv. ed. ii. p. 256. Bab. Man. Brit. 
Bot. ed. v. p. 93. 
Petioles and underside of leaves pilose. 
In pastures and by the sides of streams. Common in the 
North of England and Scotland, but rare in the South of the 
former country, and apparently absent from all the South-eastern 
counties except Surrey and Essex. For var. 6 I am indebted to 
the Rev. W. W. Newbould, who has found it at Bent’s Green, 
Sheffield. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring to 
Autumn. 
Rootstock blackish, shortly creeping. Stems numerous, decum- 
bent at the base and then ascending, 3 to 18 inches long. Petioles 
of the root-leaves 2 inches to 1 foot long; lamina plicate, 14 to 
5 inches in diameter, with the lobes approximate, wholly serrated, 
with ovate-acute teeth ; stem-leaves much smaller, rarely more than 
1 to 2 inches across. Inflorescence at first compact, but very lax in 
fruit. Flowers } inch across, greenish-yellow. Pedicels about as 
long as the calyx-tube, which in fruit becomes ovoid-campanulate ; 
segments about as long as the tube, the 4 outer ones a little shorter 
and half as broad as the inner ones. Achene ovate-ovoid, pale- 
yellowish, very finely striated and roughened with reddish glandular 
points. Whole plant greyish-green, with the stems and veins of 
the leaves beneath hairy, or, in var. 6, the whole of the underside 
of the latter. 
Common Lady’ s-Mantle. 
French, Alchémille Vulgaire. German, Lowenfuss. 
This plant is astringent in its properties. It is given in Sweden medicinally in 
the form of a tincture in spasmodic complaints. In dry pastures it abounds, and is 
eaten by cattle readily ; but it would scarcely answer as a fodder plant. It was called 
Alkemelych by the Arabian physicians ; and Hoffman and others affirm that it has the 
power of restoring feminine beauty, however faded, to its earliest freshness. 
Lightfoot tells us that the inhabitants of the Hebrides have subsisted for months 
together on this plant in times of scarcity, and that they frequently tear up the roots 
for food. They are simply boiled or roasted, and are said to taste like parsnips. ‘The 
roots are eaten greedily by pigs. / 
