148 ROSACE^.. \Spir(Ba. 



and serrated, flowers paniculato-cymose, follicles hdiry."— Br. Fl. 

 p. 117. E. B. t. 284. 



In dry gravelly or chalky and hilly pastures, also in open groves and thickets J 

 very rare. Fl. June, July. If.. 



iE. Med. — On the downs above Steephill, Dr. Martin. 



W. Med. — In the great plantation of fir, beech, &c., on the slope of the down 

 (Westover Down ?) near Westover, in one or two spots abundantly. A single spe- 

 cimen found in Northwood park, 1845, Miss G. Kilderhee. 



Root woody, tapering, reddish brown externally, with a few thickish fibres, and 

 most commonly a few roundish or oblong? fleshy tubers, of a reddish colour 

 within,* attached to the root by a slender filament, whence the specific name. 

 Stem erect, pale green, from about 1 to 2 or even 3 feet high, according to situa- 

 tion, rounded or bluntly angular, solid, simple and smoothish below, mostly spa- 

 ringly branched and more deeply furrowed above. Leaves interruptedly pinnate 

 or pinnatisect ; of the stem few, distant, somewhat erect, the uppermost extremely 

 short ; of the root numerous, spreading ; the common stalk or rachis semiterete, 

 compressed, with a deep channel or groove above, and in the radical leaves naked 

 for some distance from the base upwards ; leaflets numerous, partly opposite, 

 partly alternate, deep green, beneath paler and netted with irregularly anasto- 

 mosing veins, somewhat shining and rigid, primary ones of the stem-leaves sub- 

 linear, deeply and lobately incised, dentate, serrate or subpinnatifld, with 2 or 3 

 far smaller and shorter, toothed or cut, intermediate leaflets between each pair ; 

 those of the radical leaves broader or oblong, rather less remote and more com- 

 pound or distinctly lobed, otherwise similar : of all the leaves the leaflets are 

 quite sessile, a little clasping, not at all decurrent, their segments acute, spread- 

 ing or slightly recurved, with a few scattered bristly hairs along their margin, and 

 a terminal seta, otherwise quite glabrous, the primary ones dwindling gradually 

 towards .the base to the size and shape of the smaller intermediate or secondary 

 leaflets. Stipules of the root-leaves " linear, acute, entire " (Bab.), soon wither- 

 ing, of the stem-leaves oblong-ovate or rotundate, clasping, sharply cut, toothed 

 and serrate but not lobed like the leaflets. Cyme temrinal, panicled, large, 

 repeatedly compound, the branches very unequal, erect. Flowers numerous, 

 much larger than in S. Ulmaria, cream-coloured, often but not always tipped with 

 rose-red, faintly but pleasantly scented. Pedicels slender, unequal. Bracts 

 none. Calyx very small, greenish ; sepals oblong, rounded, a little hairy on the 

 inside at their base. Petals obovato-oblong, greatly exceeding the calyx in 

 length, entire, attenuated into long very slender claws, mostly 6 or 7, rarely but 

 5, at least in my specimens, f (SiamCTis numerous, unequal ; ^/ojnenis slender ; 

 anthers yellowish, orbicular. Oermens numerous, very small, conical, setosely 

 hispid. Styles short, thick, recurved ; stigmas very l.irge, roundish oblong, curved 

 and 2-lobed, with a central furrow. 



3. S. Ulmaria, L. Meadow Sweet. Queen of the Meadows. 

 " Herbaceous, leaves interruptedly pinnated serrated downy 

 beneath, lateral leaflets undivided terminal one largest and lobed, 

 flowers in compound (and as it were proliferous) cymes, follicles 

 glabrous."— fir. Fl. p. 117. E. B. t. 960. 



Everywhere abundant in moist meadows, wet woods, thickets and osier-beds, 

 by the sides of rivers, streams and ditches. Fl. June — August. %. 



* These tubers have a nutty but bitterish taste, and are rather tough. 

 \ I find the same number of petals in garden specimens. 



