196 THE EOSE FAMILY, 



flowers, in loose panicles or in small sessile heads. Calyx free, double, that 

 is, of 8 divisions, of which 4 alternate ones are outside and smaller. No 

 petals. Stamens 4 or fewer. Carpels 1 or 2, 1-seeded, and enclosed in the 

 dry tube of the calyx. 



The species are very few, but widely spread over the northern hemisphere, 

 chiefly in mountainous districts. The palmate, not pinnate leaves, and in- 

 florescence, readily distinguish them from the two following apetalous 

 genera. 



Pereunial. Flowers in terminal panicles. 



Leaves green on both sides, with short, broad, palmate lobes ... 1. Common A. 



Leaves silvery shining underneath, deeply palmate 2. Alpine A. 



Small annual. Flowers minute, in sessile ajaUary heads .3. Field A. 



1. Common Alchemil. Alchemilla vulgaris, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 597. Ladi/'s-mantle.) 



A perennial, either glabrous or more or less hairy, but always green, not 

 silvery. Radical leaves large, on long stalks, broadly orbictilar or reniform, 

 divided only to a fourth or a third of their depth into 7 or 9 broad, regu- 

 larly-toothed lobes. Flowering-stems decumbent or ascending, seldom 

 above 6 inches high, bearing a few small leaves on short stalks, with large, 

 green, toothed stipules, and a loose panicle of small, green flowers, each 

 borne on a little pedicel, generally at least as long as the tube of the calyx. 



In meadows and pastures, in northern and Arctic Europe and Asia, be- 

 coming more restricted to mountain-ranges in central and southern Europe 

 and central Asia. Generally distributed over Britain, but scarce in south- 

 eastern England. Fl. sprina and summer. 



2. Alpine Alchemil. Alchemilla alpina, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 244. A. conjiincta, Bab. Man.) 

 An elegant plant, with much of the general habit of the common A., but 

 known at once by tlie sliining silvery hairs, wliich cover the stems and under 

 side of the leaves. The stock often emits short, creeping runners. Leaves 

 smaller than in the common A., and divided to the base, or nearly so, into 5 or 

 7 oblong, almost entire segments. Flowers in little, dense corymbs, which 

 form short, interrupted spikes or panicles at the ends of the branches. 



In the principal mountain-ranges of Europe, but generally at greater ele- 

 vations than the common A., and in Asia and America almost restricted to 

 the Arctic regions. Abundant in many parts of the Scotch Highlands and 

 of northern England, and occurs also in the mountains of Kerry and Shgo 

 in Ireland. Fl. -summer. 



3. Field Alchemil. Alchemilla arvensis, Scop. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1011. Parsley Piert.) 



A little annual, so different in appearance from the two last that it has 

 often been considered as forming a distinct genus, but the essential characters 

 are the same as in Alchemil. It is seldom more than 2 or 3 inches high, and 

 often in full flower at 1 inch, much branched, green, and softly hairy. Leaves 

 on short stalks, orbicular, more or less deeply divided and cut. Flowers 

 very minute, green, and sessile, forming little heads in the axUs of the leaves, 

 half enclosed in the leafy stipules. 



In fields and waste gravelly places, on earthy waU-tops, etc., throughout 

 Europe and western Asia, and carried by cultivation into other countries. 

 Abundant in Britain. Fl. the whole season. 



