136 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



as far out as the wings, while in both the forms which I have here 

 placed under P. muricatum they are less prominent than the 

 wings. I strongly suspect that neither of the varieties can claim 

 to be ranked as truly indigenous. 



Muricated Salad Burnet. 



GENUS F7.— ALCHEMILLA. Tournef. 



Plowers perfect. Calyx-tube urceolate, with an annular disk in 

 the throat, 8-ribbed and scarcely indurated at maturity ; segments 

 persistent, 8, in 2 rows (outer row an epicalyx of bracts), the outer 

 4 smaller than the inner. Petals none. Stamens 4, sometimes 2 or 

 1, inserted in the throat of the calyx ; anthers 1-celled, opening by a 

 transverse slit. Ovaries 1 to 4. Style from nearly the base of the 

 ovary. Stigma capitate. Achenes 1 to 4, enclosed in the calyx-tube. 



Small perennials, rarely annuals, with alternate roundish or 

 reniform, mostly palmately-lobed or digitate leaves, with adnate 

 foliaceous stipules, which are generally united so as to form a 

 sheath or ochrea surrounding the stem. Plowers greenish, in 

 small axillary or terminal corymbose cymes frequently disposed into 

 lax panicles or corymbs. 



The name of this genus of plants comes from the word atkemelyeh, the Arabic 

 name for one of the species ; another author says it is so named on account of its virtues 

 being in repute with alchemists. 



Section I.— APHANES. Linn. 



Annuals, with the flowers sessile, in axillary glomerules. 

 Calyx with the outer row of teeth very small or abortive. Pertile 

 stamens generally only 1 or 2. 



SPECIES I.— ALC HE MILL A ARVENSIS. Scop. 

 Plate CCCCXXII. 

 Aphanes arvensis, Linn. Sp. Plant, p. 179. 



Radical leaves none. Leaves wedgeshapod-semicircular or fan- 

 shaped in outline, very deeply 3-cleft, with the segments again 

 divided half-way down into linear-oblong blunt lobes. Stipules 

 of all the leaves except the lowest with the free portion palmately 

 cut. Flowers in small sessile clusters opposite the leaves. 



In cultivated fields and waste places, and on hedge-banks. 

 Very common, and generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Spring to Autumn. 



