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140 THE ROSE FAMILY. 
2. A. alpina, Linn. (fig. 324). Alpine A.—An elegant plant, with " 
much of the general habit of A. vulgaris, but known at once by the 
shining silvery hairs, which cover the stems and under side of the 
leaves. The stock often emits short, creeping runners. Leaves smaller 
than in A. vulgaris, 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 
elevations than A. vulgaris, and in Asia and America almost restricted 
to the Arctic regions. Abundant in the mountains of Scotland and 
northern England, and occurs also in those of Kerry and Sligo in 
Treland. Jl. summer. [A. argentea, Don (conjuncta, Bab.), is a curious 
sport, with the leaflets connate below the middle, found in a few spots 
in Scotland, as well as in France and Switzerland. } 
3. A. arvensis, Scop. (fig. 8325). Parsley Piert,—A little annual, so 
different in appearance from the last two that Linnzeus considered it as 
forming a distinct genus (Aphanes, Linn.), but the essential characters 
are the same as in Alchemilla. 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 axils of the leaves, half enclosed in the leafy stipules. 
In fields and waste gravelly places, on earthy wall tops, &c., through- 
out Europe and western Asia, and carried by cultivation into other 
countries. Abundantin Britain. Fl. the whole season. 
IX. SANGUISORBA. SANGUISORB. 
Herbs, with a perennial stock, annual, erect, or ascending stems, and 
pinnate leaves. Flowers in dense oval or cylindrical heads, at the ends 
of long peduncles. Calyx simple, of 4 coloured lobes, the tube enclosed 
in 2 or 4 bracts. Petals none. Stamens few. Carpels 1 or rarely 2, 
1-seeded, enclosed in the dry, oblong tube of the calyx. 
The genus consists but of very few European, north Asiatic, and 
North American species, ‘They are closely allied to the following 
genus, with which they are popularly included under the name of 
Burnet, the chief distinction being in the small number of stamens, and 
the flowers usually hermaphrodite. ; 
1. S. officinalis, Linn. (fig. 326). Great Burnet.—A glabrous and 
erect perennial, attaining about 2 feet in height. Leaves chiefly radical 
or from the lower part of the stem, with 9 to 13 ovate or oblong, toothed 
segments ; the upper part of the stem almost leafless, and divided into 
3 or 4 long peduncles, each terminated by a single head of flowers, at 
first globular, then ovoid or oblong, rarely an inch long. Flowers much 
crowded, and more or less tinged with dark purple. Stamens usually 
4, but varying from 3 to 6. Poterium officinale, Hook. f. 
In moist meadows, chiefly in mountainous districts, almost all over 
Kurope and Russian Asia to the Arctic Circle. In Britain, not un- 
common from Ayr and Selkirk southwards; rare in Ireland. Fl, — 
Sunimer. 
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