758 ACT^A. LCLASS XIII. ORDER I. 



footstalks of the segments are mostly dilated on one side at the base, 

 sometimes into a leafy expansion, a dark shining green above, glaucous 

 and smooth, or hairy beneath. Flowers a bright yellow, in small 

 lateral simple umbels, not very numerous, and the common stalk is 

 smooth or hairy, as are the partial ones, which are surrounded at thie 

 base, with obtuse membranous scales. Calyx of two oblong semi- 

 membranous scales, concave, and falling off as the flower expands. 

 Petals roundish, wedge-shaped. Stamens with the filaments dilated 

 upwards. Stigma small, two lobed. Pod linear, cylindrical, pointed 

 at the base and towards the apex, one celled, two valved, bursting from 

 the bottom. Seeds numerous. 



Habitat. — Waste places, banks, and hedges; frequent, /3. Wim- 

 bleton, Surrey ; Dillenius, Smith. 



Perennial ; flowering in May and June. 



The whole plant abounds in an acrimonious yellow coloured juice, 

 which has been used for the cure of various diseases of the skin in the 

 form of infusion or decoction, and the juice is still used by country 

 people to destroy warts, ringworms, and tetters ; and diluted with milk 

 it is said to have been used with advantage in removing specks from 

 the eyes. When the infusion or decoction of either the herb or roots 

 is taken it must be with caution, as its acridity is liable to cause con- 

 siderable irritation of the bowels. It has been considered useful in the 

 cure of jaundice, and perhaps the very irritation which it causes may 

 in some cases have been useful. 



GENUS V. ACT'iEA.— Linn. Bane-berry. 



Nat. Ord. Ranuncula'ce^. Jdss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx of four caducous pieces. Petals four. Fruit a 

 one celled many seeded herry. — Name from ax-TW, the Elder; 

 which the leaves of this plant somewhat resemble. 



1, A. spica'ta, Linn. (Fig. 861.) Black Bane-berries, or Herb 

 Christopher. Berry sub-globose; petals the length of the stamens; 

 raceme simple, elongated ; leaves bi- or tri-ternate ; leaflets oblong, or 

 ovate, deeply cut and serrated. 



English Botany, t. 918.— English Flora, vol. iii. p. 3.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 213— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 13. 



Root with short creeping underground stems. Stem erect, angular, 

 from one to two feet high, scarcely branched, smooth below, downy 

 above, leafy. Leaves two or three times teruate, with long channeled 

 footstalks, leaflets ovate, or ovate oblong, lobed, cut, and unequally 

 serrated, a smooth shining green above, pale, glaucous, and sometimes 

 slightly downy beneath. Infiorescence a terminal oblong simple 

 raceme, of numerous flowers, each on a slender short pedicle, from the 



