“* 
? 
142 THE ROSE FAMILY. [Poteriwm. 
of flowers smaller and more globular than in Sanguisorba, of a light 
green colour, very seldom acquiring a purplish tinge. Lower flowers all 
males, with the numerous stamens projecting in hanging tufts; upper 
flowers female, with a long style ending in a purple, tufted stigma. Ripe 
calyx from 1 to 2 lines long, more or less distinctly quadrangular, and 
irregularly wrinkled and pitted. | 
In dry pastures and clefts of limestone rocks, in central and southern 
Europe, and temperate Russian Asia, extending northwards into southern 
Sweden, In Britain, generally spread over the limestone districts of Eng- 
land, but scarce in Scotland and Ireland. The ripe calyx or fruit varies in 
size and in the prominence of the wrinkles, constituting in the eyes of 
southern botanists, several distinct species; one of these, with the ripe 
calyx near 2 lines long, and very distinctly pitted and marked with little 
asperities, is usually inserted in our Floras under the name of P. muricatum, 
Spach. 
XII. AGRIMONIA. AGRIMONY. 
Herbs, with a perennial stock, erect stems, pinnate leaves with distinct 
segments or leaflets, and yellow flowers in long, terminal, simple, loose 
spikes. Calyx 5-toothed. Petals 5. Stamens few. Carpels usualiy 2, 
enclosed within the dry, persistent calyx, which is covered, when ripe, with 
hooked bristles. 
The genus$ comprises but very few European, north Asiatic, and North 
American species, easily known by their inflorescence, as well as by their 
fruit. 
1, A. Eupatoria, Linn. (fig. 327). Common Agrimony.—Stems 2 or 
3 feet high, more or less clothed, as well as the leaves, with soft hairs. 
Lower leaves often 6 inches long, with from 5 to 9 distinct, ovate, coarsely- 
toothed leaflets, about an inch long, intermixed with a number of much 
smaller ones ; the upper leaves gradually smaller, with fewer leaflets. Spike 
long and leafless, but each flower in the axil of a small 3-cleft bract, with 
two smaller 3-toothed bracteoles on the very short pedicel. Tube of the 
calyx hairy and erect when in flower, turned downwards after flowering, 
when it becomes thickly covered at the top with hooked, green or reddish 
bristles, forming a small burr. Petals rather small, oblong. Stamens short, 
often not more than 6 or 7, but sometimes twice that number. 
On roadsides, waste places, borders of fields, etc., over nearly the whole 
of Europe, Russian Asia, and North America, but not an Arctic plant. 
Frequent in England and Ireland, but becoming scarce beyond the Clyde and 
Forth, in Scotland. #V. all summer. It varies considerably in the hairi- 
ness of the foliage, in the size of the flowers, and in the form of the ripe 
calyx, which is more or less contracted at the base, from obconical to cam- 
panulate; and from this character two European species have been distin- 
guished, but the differences do not appear constant enough to separate them 
even as marked varieties. [These are— 
a. A. Hupatoria proper. Fruiting calyx obconic, deeply grooved, with 
the lower spines spreading. 
b. A. odorata, Mill. More branched, with resinous odour, racemes 
denser, flowers larger, fruiting calyx hardly furrowed, with the lower spines 
spreading or deflexed. | 
