Alchemiila. | XXVI. ROSACES, 141 
3. A. arvensis, Scop, (fig. 324). Mield Alchemil, Parsley Piert.—A 
little annual, so different in appearance from the last two that it has often 
been considered as forming a distinct genus, 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, etc., throughout 
Europe and western Asia, and carried by cultivation into other countries. 
Abundant in Britain. £7. the whole season. 
X. 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 dis- 
tinction being in the small number of stamens, and the flowers usually 
hermaphrodite. 
1, S. officinalis, Linn. (fig. 325). Burnet Sanguisorb, 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 
_ Europe and Russian Asia to the Arctic Circle. In Britain, not uncommon 
from Ayr and Selkirk southwards; rare in Ireland. 7. summer. 
XI. POTERIUM. POTERIUM. 
Herbs, with a perennial stock, ascending or erect annual stems, and pin- 
nate leaves. Flowers without petals, in dense, globular or ovate heads at 
the ends of long peduncles, as in Sanguisorba, but most frequently mone- 
cious. Calyx in the males 4-lobed, the stamens numerous, with long fila- 
ments. Calyx in the female tubular, contracted at the mouth, with 4 small 
deciduous teeth. After flowering it becomes quadrangular, closely enclos- 
ing 1 or rarely 2 one-seeded carpels. 7 
A small genus, chiefly south European and western Asiatic, generally 
preferring drier and more rocky situations than the Sanguisorbas. 
1. P. Sanguisorba, Linn. (fig. 326). Burnet Poterium, Salad 
Burnet, Garden Burnet.—A glabrous or very slightly downy perennial, 
much like the Sanguisorba but smaller, the stem seldom above a foot high. 
Leaflets small, ovate, deeply toothed, often 15 to 19 to each leaf. Heads 
