256 



THE ROSE FAMILY. 



IX. ALCHEMIL. ALCIIEMILLA. 



Tufted herbs, either annual or with a perennial, almost woody stock, 

 and annual flowering- stems, palmately lobed or divided leaves, and 

 small green flowers, in loose panicles or in small sessile heads. Calyx 

 free, double, that is, of 8 divisions, of which 4 alternate ones are out- 

 side and smaller. No petals. Stamens 4 or fewer. Carpels 1 or 2, 

 1-seeded, and enclosed in the dry tube of the calyx. 



The species are very few, but widely spread over the northern hemi- 

 sphere, chiefly in mountainous districts. The palmate, not pinnate 

 leaves, and inflorescence, readily distinguish them from the two follow- 

 ing apetalous genera. 



Perennial. Flowers in terminal panicles. 



Leaves green on both sides, with short, broad, palmate lobes 1. Common A. 



Leaves silvery shining underneath, deeply palmate ... 2. Alpine A. 



Small annual. Flowers minute, in sessile axillary heads . . 3. Field A. 



1. Common AlcTiemil. Alehemilla vulgaris, Linn. 

 (Fig. 317.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 597. Lady s -mantle.) 



A perennial, either glabrous or more 

 or less hairy, but always green, not 

 silvery. Eadical leaves large, on long 

 stalks, broadly orbicular or reniform, 

 divided only to a fourth or a third of 

 their depth into 7 or 9 broad, regularly- 

 toothed lobes. Flowering-stems decum- 

 bent or ascending, seldom above 6 inches 

 high, bearing a few small leaves on short 

 stalks, with large, green, toothed sti- 

 pules, and a loose panicle of small, green 

 flowers, each borne on a little pedicel, 

 generally at least as long as the tube of 

 the calyx. 



In meadows and pastures, in north- 

 ern and Arctic Europe and Asia, be- 

 coming more restricted to mountain- 

 ranges in central and southern Europe 



and central Asia. Generally distributed over Britain, but scarce in 



south-eastern England. Fl. spring and summer. 



Fig. 317. 



