4, ENGLISH BOTANY. 
GENUS 1.—THALICTRUM. Linn. 
Involucre none. Sepals 4 or 5, petaloid, caducous. Petals none. 
Stamens definite or indefinite. Ovaries numerous. Achenes stipitate. 
Styles deciduous or none. Leaves alternate, ternately decompound. 
This genus is probably allied to the Helleboridee, and may be 
considered as a form of that group, having the ovules reduced to 
one, and the fruit indehiscent. 
SPECIES I—THALICTRUM ALPINUM. Liu. 
Prate IT. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. III. Ran. Tab. XXVI. Fig. 4625. 
Stem terminating in a simple raceme of drooping flowers. Pedi- 
cels recurved in fruit. Carpels stipitate, oblong, slightly clavate, 
bulging on the inner side. Anthers apiculate. 
Not uncommon on wet rocks and débris on mountains; and in 
the extreme North, on wet moors almost down to the sea-level. 
Occurs in Wales, the North of England, Ireland, and Scotland. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
The smallest species of the genus, with slender wiry stems, 8 to 
9 inches high, with short stolons at the base, and biternate-stalked 
leaves, which are mostly radical, though in luxuriant specimens 
there is often one or more situated on the lower part of the stem. 
Leaflets small, roundish, bluntly serrated, much less variable in 
shape than in the other British species, deep green above, whitish 
below. Flowers in a simple terminal raceme, which is drooping at 
the point before the flowers open, then becoming erect, while the 
individual flowers droop: these are small, with 4 pale purplish- 
brown sepals, and oo 10, or more long pendent stamens, with yellow 
anthers. Fruit of 2 or 3 narrowly ~oblong ribbed achenes, thick- 
ened at the point, which is bent outwards by the carpel bulging on 
the inner side near the end. Bracts small, lanceolate, entire, 
Alpine Meadow Rue, or Poor Mans Rhubarb. 
French, Rue des Prés, or Pigamon. German, Wiesenrwute. 
The generic name, from Sé\Aw (hallo), I flourish. 
SPECIES I..—THALICTRUM MINUS. Zinn. 
Prates IIT. IV. V. 
Stem striated, terminating in a branched irregularly pyramidal 
or flat-topped lax panicle of drooping flowers. Fruit pale olive, 
