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GEUM URBANUM. 
Common Avens, or Herb Bennd. 
Class IcosANDRiA — Order Polygynia. 
Nat. Ord. SenticosjE, Linn. Rosaceje, Jms. 
Gen. Char. Calyx 10- cleft, inferior. Corolla 5-petalled. 
Seeds with a bent awn. Receptacle cylindrical. 
Spec. Char. Flowers nearly erect. Awns naked. Leaves 
ternate. Radical ones lyrato-pinnate. 
The Geum Urbanum is a perennial plant, indigenous to Britaiii, 
and most other parts of Europe. It is a very common plant in many 
of our counties, and is generally found in woods and other shady 
situations, where it flowers through the greater part of the summer 
months. 
The root of this plant is woody, fibrous, and of a brown colour ; 
the stem grows erect, is rough, covened with minute hairs,and some- 
what angular, branched towards the top, and rises to the height of 
about two feet; the leaves vary, the lower ones stand on long chan- 
nelled foot-stalks, in form interruptedly pinnate and lyrate, the ter- 
minal leaf the largest, rounded, and frequently three-lobed ; the cau- 
line leaves are sessile, wedge-shaped and trifid ; the whole irregularly 
toothed, serrated and hairy ; the flowers are terminal, solitary, and 
stand on long hairy peduncles ; the calyx is inferior, permanent, 
formed of one leaf, divided into ten acute segments, which are alter- 
nately large and small ; the corolla is composed of five bright yellow 
petals, which are roundish, and attached by their claws to the rim 
of the calyx ; the filaments are numerous, awl-shaped, shorter than 
the corolla, and support roundish yellow anthers ; the germens are 
ovate, hairy and compressed into an orbicular bead ; the styles are 
jointed about the middle, and support simple stigmas ; the seeds are 
* Fig. a. The calyx. 6. A stamen magni&ed, attached to part of the calys. c. A 
radical leaf. d. A pistil magnified. 
VOL I. 2d 
