E0SAGE2E. 341 



side. Sometimes the number of stamens may be still greater. Each 

 consists of a free filament, inserted outside the very thick circular 

 rim of a glandular disk lining the receptacular sac (figs. 381, 3S.2), 

 and of an introrse two-celled anther, dehiscing longitudinally. The 

 gynaeceum consists of two or three free carpels inserted in the 

 bottom of the receptacle, each composed of a one-celled ovary tapering 

 above into a style, which passes through the narrow aperture in the 

 disk and ends in a stigrnatiferous head. In the internal angle of 

 the ovary is a descending ovule, with its micropyle looking upwards 

 and outwards. The fruit (figs. 383, 384) is made up of two or three 

 achenes, one or two of which are usually sterile, surrounded, as in 

 the Roses, by the receptacular pouch, and crowned by the persistent 

 sepals. But this indusium is dry instead of being fieshy, and the 

 upper part of its outer surface is covered with rigid hooked needles, 

 which existed in the flower, but have grown larger and harder 

 during maturation. In each achene we find a suspended seed, whose 

 coats cover a large, fleshy, exalbuminous embr^^o, whose radicle is 

 superior.' The Agrimonies are perennial herbs, inhabiting the tem- 

 perate regions of the northern hemisphere ; they are also found all 

 over the world, growing on the mountains of even the southern 

 hemisphere.^ Their aerial branches are covered with alternate im- 

 paripinnate leaves, with incised serrate leaflets, and two lateral 

 stipules adnate to the petiole. The flowers are grouped in usually 

 elongated, terminal, simple or slightly ramified racemes, bearing 

 alternate bracts. Axillary to each of these is a flower, with two 

 lateral bractlets, which are rarely fertile. 



Some writers have considered a small plant' from the Mediter- 



' In A. JEupaioria the cotyledons liave au- slightly inibricatccl in the hud. They possess 



ricles at the base, which partly surround the membranous stipules, lorming a little calycle 



radicle. of five oppositipetalous pieces. In the culti- 



- DC, Frodr., loc. cit., 587, 588.— Wallr., vated plant, we may often find ten stamens iu- 



Beitr. z. Bot., i. 1-61, t. 1.— C. A. Mey., Bull. stead of five. As in the true Agrimonies, they 



S.-Pet., X. n. 22. — Waip., Rep., ii. 37, 914. — are inserted around the very thick rim termi- 



Gken. & GoDE., Fl. de Fr., i. 561.— Harv. & nating the disk. The two anther-cells are sepa- 



SoND., Fl. Cap., ii. 290.— Tore. & Ge., Fl. N. rated by a pretty broad connective. The gynsB- 



Ainer., i. 430.— A. Geay, 3Ian. of Bot., ed. 5, ccnm consists of two, or more rarely of three 



151. — CAikm.,Fl.S. Unit.-Sfate.s, 122. — lIoOK. free carpels; of these the only part that issues 



F., in Maet., Fl. Bras., Rosac, (37. from the mouth of the receptacle is the bilabiate 



•^ This was Agrimonia agrimonioides L. »S/)., stigrnatiferous summit. The fruit is dry and 



i. 643; — A. similis Bauh., Bin., 321 ; — glabrous, closely enwrapped in the sac formed 



Agrimonoldes Cox^VTAS!., Ecphr., t. 144; — T., by the two bracts that were so nuich devilopcd 



Ins-tit., 301, t. 155). The sepals are valvate or even in th(> flower. 



