•242 ROSACEA 



surface is like satin, and is so lustrous as to have quite a metallic appearance. 

 This alpine species grows high up on the mountains at the north of England 

 and Scotland, and is very frequent in the Highlands, as well as on the 

 heights of Ireland. It is supposed by Lightfoot to aid considerably in giving 

 the peculiarly excellent flavour to the highland mutton. 



3. Field' Lady's Mantle or Parsley Piert (A. arvMsis). — Leaves 

 palmate, 3-cleft ; lobes wedge-shaped, deeply toothed at the end ; stem pros- 

 trate or ascending ; flowers sessile, axillary. Plant annual. This is a 

 common little plant everywhere in fields and waste places, often growing on 

 the wall beside Whitlow-grass, but not flowering until May, when that 

 blossom has withered. It continues in bloom till August. The branches 

 and leafy stems often spread over the soil, and are five or six inches long. 

 The small tufts of greenish flowers are almost hidden among the leaves and 

 their large stipules. 



12. Burnet {Sanguis&i-ha). 



Great Burnet {S. officinalis). — Leaves pinnate, with about 13 leaflets, 

 which are oblong and heart-shaped, stalked, blunt, and coarsely serrated ; 

 spikes egg-shaped, or in one variety of the plant long and cylindrical. Plant 

 perennial. This Burnet has from June to September large oblong heads 

 cf flowers, of a dull purple colour, standing on a much-branched stem, from 

 one to three feet high. Cattle are very fond of this plant, which is not 

 uncommon in moist pastures. It had the old name of Bloodwort, not so 

 much from its colour probably as from its supposed virtues as a styptic. 

 The people of Siberia are said to eat the roots. 



13. Salad Burnet (PoUnum). 



Salad Burnet or Burnet Bloodwort (P. sangidsorha). — Stem slightly 

 angular, lower part often downy ; leaves pinnate, with numerous small 

 serrated leaflets, which are smooth or slightly hairy beneath ; calyx of the 

 fruit smooth, and marked Avith a network ; flowers in roundish heads, the 

 upper ones in each head bearing crimson-tufted pistils ; the lower ones from 

 30 to 40 stamens. Plant perennial. This plant as early as June has its 

 pistil-bearing blossoms open, the purplish crimson styles with their stigmas 

 looking like little richly-tinted brushes long before the floAvers bearing 

 stamens expand. These latter are fully blown a week or two later, and the 

 plant is then in flower till the end of July. The lower flowers, which contain 

 the stamens, present a very elegant appearance, as their long filaments hang 

 all around the oval head. The stem is about a foot and a half in height, 

 often much tinged with red, while the leaf-sprays which crowd around its 

 base are bright green and of an elegant form. To these leaves the plant 

 owes its name of Salad Burnet, for their flavour, so like that of the cucumber, 

 induced our forefathers to eat them in their salad, and they are still gathered 

 for this purpose on the Continent. In France the plant is called La Pitn- 

 jjrenelle, and the Germans call it Die Pimpernclle. Both this and the Great 

 Burnet were formerly planted as pasturage for cattle, and the "Sweet 

 Burnet " is praised by the poets of Queen Elizabeth's time. It has of late 

 years been again cultivated to some extent by farmers as food for cattle, as 



