142 19. R. VILLICAULIS. 



quinate, nearly flat. Leaflets dull green and pilose above, 

 paler green, and with long soft silky hairs on the veins but 

 not felted beneath, slightly convex, irregularly dentate- 

 serrate, often with larger patent teeth at intervals; basal 

 leaflets shortly stalked, elliptic; intermediate obovate, acu- 

 minate, bluntly wedgeshaped or rarely subcordate at the 

 base; terminal obovate or cordate-obovate or nearly roundly 

 cordate, cuspidate ; petioles flat above, and as well as the 

 midribs having rather strong, nearly straight, declining 

 prickles beneath; stipules linear. 



Flowering shoot from brown scales clothed with ashy 

 down, hairy, with rarely an aciculus or seta. Leaves ternate. 

 Leaflets broad, like those of the stem but more hairy above. 

 Fanicle long, loose, compound ; axillary branches many, 

 usually short, erect-patent, mostly corymbose, a few of the 

 lowest racemose and rarely lengthened into secondary 

 panicles like the primary one ; upper part with more patent 

 few-flowered corymbose branches ; rachis and peduncles 

 hairy, slightly felted, with short setae. Sepals ovate-acumi- 

 nate, spreading, hairy, felted, setose, aciculate, with a long 

 rather leaflike point. Petals pink, obovate, clawed. Fila- 

 ments pink. Anthers greenish. Styles greenish with a pink 

 base. Primordial fruit-stalk shorter than the sepals. 



It is stated in the Ruhi Germanici that the under side of 

 the leaves is white, and the plant is so figured ; but I have 

 not seen any English specimens having such leaves. In all 

 our plants the spaces between the veins on the underside 

 are quite naked and rather pale green; but often so much 

 overhung by the dense long and shining hairs, which clothe 

 the veins, as to be nearly hidden. Weihe and Nees describe 

 the branches of the panicle as all divaricate and corymbose, 

 but figure them as ascending : neither of these states is 

 constant with us ; we have specimens like the figure in Euhi 

 Germanici, and also some where the lower branches are 



