12 AGRIMONY. 



diate smaller ones three to five cleft ; between these are others 

 extremely small and entire ; the whole ovate, hairy, and sessile, 

 except the terminal leaflet, which is furnished with a footstalk. 

 The stipules are two, opposite, amplexicaul, and deeply serrate. 

 The flowers are disposed in a long terminal spike ; they are 

 small, yellow, almost sessile, with a three-cleft bractea at their 

 base, and appear in June and July. The calyx is double ; the 

 interior or true calyx is permanent, composed of five ovate, 

 pointed segments, externally surrounded with numerous rigid 

 hairs, hooked at the end ; the exterior is hairy at the edges and 

 the outside. The corolla is composed of five ovate, spreading 

 petals, slightly notched at the end, of a bright yellow colour, 

 and much longer than the calyx, into the throat of which they are 

 inserted. The stamens are usually twelve, varying to five in 

 number, arising from the calyx, shorter than the petals ; the 

 anthers are small, double, and compressed. The germen is in- 

 ferior, double ; the styles are two, each terminated by an obtuse 

 stigma. The capsule is formed of the hardened calyx con- 

 tracted at the summit, containing one or tv.'o smooth, oval, 

 roundish seeds. Plate I., fig. 4., (a) represents the flower, from 

 which the petals are detached ; (6) the ripe fruit. 



The Agrimony is found in most of the temperate climates of 

 the northern hemisphere. It grows abundantly in this country 

 in hedge rows, borders of fields, and road sides, which it embel- 

 lishes during the summer months with its lofty spike of golden 

 bloom, and very elegant leaves. The curious provision made 

 by nature for disseminating the species is deserving of i-emark. 

 The fruit is beset with long rigid hairs, hooked at the end, by 

 means of which it adheres to the person or animal that may 

 happen to come in contact with it. 



The learned are not quite agreed as to the origin of the word 

 Agrimonia. Some suppose it to have been derived from ager, 

 agri, a field ; others imagine that it is a corruption of ufytfjiove, 

 a name given by the Greeks to a plant that was reputed to cure 

 cataract of the eye. It was called Eupatoria, from wap, n-Tzcctoc, 

 the liver, in the diseases of which organ it has in all ages been 

 esteemed an effectual remedy, and hence the provincial name 

 Liverwort. 



Qualities. — The whole plant, and especially the root, in 

 spring, exhales an agreeable odour, which is, however, rather 



