SANGUISORBEJE. 53 



are large trees or shrubs ; in Europe and North America, they 

 are weeds. 



Thesium. L. 5. 1. 



T. umbcllatum. L. False Toad Flax. Stem about a foot 

 high, round, erect, branching a little, with alternate, entire, 

 sessile, mucronate leaves, oblong-ovate ; flowers in a corymb, 

 white ; blossoms in July, on rocky hills, and in dry woods. Said 

 to be slightly astringent. 



The other genus of this order in our State, contains trees, as 

 Nyssa, the Pepperidge, or Tupelo Tree. 



ORDER 72. SANGUISORBEJE. Burnet Tribe. 



Flowers often declinous, or stamens and pistils in separate 

 flowers; calyx tubular, 4-5-lobed, without petals; stamens 

 definite, usually alternating with the lobes of the calyx, and stand- 

 ing round the style which rises solitary from the ovary ; leaves 

 alternate, with stipules ; flowers small ; often in heads ; some of 

 the order are herbaceous. Astringent and tonic ; it is rather too 

 late in the history of beauty, to repeat the assertion of F. Hoff- 

 man, that a decoction of Alchemilla vulgaris, will restore "faded 

 beauty to its earliest freshness." Lindley. 



The plants of this order are spread widely over the world. 



Sanguisorba. L. 4. 1. 



S. Canadensis. L. Burnet Saxifrage. Stem 2-4 feet high, 

 with pinnate leaves, and long cylindrical spikes of white flowers ; 

 grows in wet meadows ; blossoms in August. 



Another species is ascribed to the Northern States. 



Poterium. W. 4. 1. 

 P. sanguisorba. L. Burnet. A plant too well known to 

 need description ; cultivated for its beauty and pleasant-flavored 

 leaves, with an angular stem nearly 2 feet high, and leafless, 

 and bearing a head of not very showy flowers ; a native of Eng- 

 land, and the South of Europe. 



