AST 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



A T H 



145 



gent and smooth. This species is remarkable for the large- 

 ness of the heads or balls of flowers, which are almost as 

 large as those of the first species. Native of the Levant. 



63. Astragalus Echinoides. The leaves are minute ; the 

 flowers small, white, with a purple line on the banner ; 

 peduncles axillary, short, two-flowered. Native of Crete 

 or Candia. 



Astrantia ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Digynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: umbel universal with 

 very few rays (often three) ; partial with very numerous 

 ones. Involucre universal, with leaflets double to the ray ; 

 partial with leaflets {about twenty) lanceolate, spreading, 

 equal, coloured, longer than the uinbellule. Perianth proper, 

 five-toothed, acute, erect, permanent. Corolla .- universal 

 uniform; floscules-of the ray abortive ; proper with petals 

 five, erect, inflex, bifid. Stamina: filamenta five, simple, 

 the length of the corollule ; anthera simple. Pistil: ger- 

 iiien oblong, inferior ; styles two, erect, filiform ; stigmas 

 simple, spreading. Pericarp : fruit ovate, obtuse, crowned, 

 striated, bipartite. Seeds : two, ovate-oblong, covered 

 with the crust of the pericarp, wrinkled. ESSENTIAL CHA- 

 RACTER. Partial Involucres, lanceolate, spreading, equal, 

 longer, coloured. Flowers, very many, abortive. All the 

 plants of this genus, except the fourth species, are very 

 hardy, and may be propagated either by sowing their seeds, 

 or by parting their roots. If from seeds, they should be 

 sown in autumn soon after they are ripe, on a shady bor- 

 der ; and when the plants are come up, they should be 

 carefully weeded, drawing out some wherever they are 

 found to be too close, in order that the others may have 

 room to grow, until Michaelmas, when they should be 

 transplanted where they are to remain, which should 

 always be in a moist soil and a shady situation. They 

 should be planted three feet asunder, as their roots will 

 spread to a considerable width, if they be permitted to re- 

 main long in the same place. They require no other cul- 

 ture but to keep them clear from weeds, and every third 

 or fourth year to be taken up at Michaelmas, and their 

 roots parted, and planted again. They are seldom pre- 

 served except in botanic gardens, as there is no great 

 beauty in the flowers. The species are, 



1. Astrantia Major ; Great Masterwort. Leaves five-lobed, 

 lobes trifid; stem eighteen inches high, branched a little. 

 It is a native of the mountains of Switzerland, where it 

 was found abundantly, flowering in August. Its singulari- 

 ty has long obtained for it a place in our gardens, where it 

 flowers in June and the succeeding months of summer. The 

 whole plant has a warm aromatic taste, but little is known 

 respecting its virtues, except that it is a violent purgative. 



2. Astrantia Carniolica. Leaves five or seven lobed, sim- 

 ple or bifid ; root nearly the thickness of the little finger, 

 about an inch long, praemorse, dark brown, having an aroma- 

 tic balsamic smell, with a taste at first slightly aromatic but 

 nauseous, and afterwards acrid. The whole plant is smooth. 

 Native of Carniola ; flowering there in July and August. 



3. Astrantia Minor; Little, or Alpine Masterwort. Leaves 

 digitate-serrate. This seldom rises a foot high. Native 

 of the Alps, and Alpine valleys of Switzerland, but not of 

 the lower mountains, flowering there in August. 



4. Astrantia Ciliaris. Leaves lanceolate, serrate-ciliate ; 

 stem simple, a foot higli ; rushes erect. Native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. This species always requires to be 

 protected by a dry-stove in winter. 



5. Astrantia Epipactis. Leaves five-parted, obtuse-ser- 

 rate ; flowers in a head, yellow. Native of Idria, Gorizia, 

 and also of Hungary, flowering in March. 



VOL. r. 13 



Astronium ; a genus of the class Dioecia, order Pentan- 

 dria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix: perianth five- 

 leaved, coloured, small ; leaflets ovate, concave, obtuse, 

 spreading. Corolla: petals five, ovate, very obtuse, flat, 

 spreading very much. Nectary, five roundish, very small 

 glands in the disk of the flower. Stamina : filamenta five, 

 subulate, spreading, the length of the corolla; antherae 

 oblong, incumbent. Female. Calix: perianth five-leaved, 

 coloured ; leaflets oblong, concave, obtuse, converging. Co- 

 rolla : petals five, subovate, obtuse, concave, erect, less than 

 the calix, permanent. Pistil : germen ovate, obtuse ; styles 

 three, short, reflex ; stigmas subcapitate. Pericarp : none. 

 Calix increased, coloured ; its leaflets at first expanded into 

 a pendulous star, at length dropping the seed. Seed : one, 

 oval, the length of the calix, lactescent. ESSENTIAL CHARAC- 

 TER. Male. Calix : five-leaved. Corolla: five-petalled. 

 Female. Calix : five-leaved. Corolla : five-petalled. Styles : 

 three. Seed : one. The following is the only species : 



1. Astronium Graveolens. An upright tree, from twelve 

 to thirty feet in height, abounding every where in a slightly 

 glutinous terebinthine juice, which has a disagreeable smell. 

 After the fruits of the female, and the flower in the male 

 plants, have fallen off, new branches are put forth, having 

 unequally pinnate leaves on them, with three pairs of leaf- 

 lets, which are oblong, ovate, acuminate, quite entire or ser- 

 rulate, smooth, veined, three inches in length. Panicles lax, 

 half a foot long in the males, but a foot and a half long in 

 the females, scattered on the outmost twigs ; flowers small, 

 red. The calices are expanded into stars, nine lines in 

 diameter. Native of the woods about ^Carthagena in New 

 Spain; flowering in May and June, and fruiting in" July. 



Athamanta ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Digy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: umbel, universal, mani- 

 fold ; spreading ; partial, has few rays. Involucre universal, 

 many-leaved, linear, a little shorter than the rays ; partial 

 linear, equal with the rays. Perianth proper, obscure. Corol- 

 la : universal, uniform ; floscules all fertile ; proper, with 

 five petals, inflex-emarginate, a little unequal. Stamina : 

 filamenta five, capillary, the length of the corolla ; antherae 

 roundish. Pistil : germen inferior ; styles two, distant ; 

 stigmas obtuse. Pericarp : none ; fruit ovate-oblong, stri- 

 ated, bipartite. Seeds . two, ovate, convex on one side, stri- 

 ated ; on the other flat. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Fruit : 

 ovate-oblong, striated. Petals : inflex, emarginate. These 

 plants are propagated by seeds, which should be sown in 

 autumn, on an open bed of dry light ground; and, when the 

 plants come up in the spring, they should be kept clean from 

 weeds, and thinned where they are too close, so that they may 

 have room to grow till the following autumn, when they 

 should be carefully taken up, and planted at about a foot 

 distance, in a bed of light sandy earth, where the roots will 

 continue several years ; except the eighth species, which is 

 annual ; and the ninth, which probably requires some shelter, 

 but has not been cultivated with us. The species are, 



1. Athamanta Libanotis ; Mountain Spignel, or Stone Pars- 

 ley. Leaves bipinnate, flat ; umbel hemispherical ; seeds 

 hirsute ; root perennial ; stem from one to two feet high, 

 erect, not much branched, leafy. Native of Denmark, 

 Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Carniola, the south, 

 of France, and on Gog-magog hills near Cambridge. 



2. Athamanta Cervaria ; Broad-leaved Spignel, or Black- 

 Hart Root. Leaves pinnate, decussated, gash-angled ; seeds 

 naked ; root perennial, thick, very long, annulated, full of 

 resinous juice, s weet-smelling,with abristle-shaped crown. 

 This plant is recommended in the gout, and in Stiria they use 

 it in intermittent fevers. Native of the mountains of France, 



2P 



