Localities. — In bushy fields ; extremely rare. — Co r nw all ; First found by 
Mr. Stevens, in the time of Dillenius; after which it remained for half a 
century unobserved. In (treat plenty in a field more than a mile north of Bod- 
min, which had then (1788) been ploughed, after having lain fallow for ages: 
Mr. Pennington. In a wheat-field, and in an adjoining coppice called ftlarget, 
or Margaret, Wood, about three furlongs from the Bodmin Turnpike, that leads 
to Launceston; (1789): Sir T. Cullum. In a field about half a mile furiher 
from Bodmin, [than Mr. Pennington’s station for it,] on ground sloping into a 
valley facing to the west, and nearly at the bottom of the slope: June, 1793 ; 
Dr. Withering. “ Shown to Mr. Sowerby and me in fields about half a mile 
north of Bodmin by Dr. Hall, plentifully :” D. Turner, Esq. (1799 1) in B. G. 
Plentifully at Hungeiill, in the parish of Cardynham, near Bodmin, on the 
sloping side of a barren hill : Mr. Stackhouse. In a wood, and corn-field at 
Cardynham Parsonage ; and in Draw-wood, Bradoc : Mr. Forster, jun. Very 
abundant two miles north-west of Bodmin, on Hare Down, half a mile above 
Dunmere River : Rev. J. P. Jones, in Bot. Tour. p. 37. Abundant in Oak 
Coppices, and adjacent fields and hedges, near Bodmin: Mr. H. C. Watson, 
in N. B. G, 
Perennial. — Flowers in July. 
Root spindle-shaped, descending deep into the ground. Stem 
from IS inches to 2 feet high, solitary, upright, round, striated, 
smooth ; panicled above, purplish at the base. Leaves mostly 
radical, on long petioles, thrice ternate ; leaflets wedge-shaped, cut 
and laciniated, or deeply 3-parted, the segments pointed, smooth, 
or minutely downy on the veins and margins. Stem-leaves few, of 
3 strap-spear-shaped, pointed, entire leaflets ; the uppermost of all 
often simple. Umbels terminal, upright, of several universal as 
well as partial, smooth, angular rays. Universal involucrum of 
from 4 to 8, spear-shaped, or somewhat egg-shaped, pointed leaves, 
much shorter than the rays ; partial ones similar, equal to the 
partial 1 rays. Cahjx evident. Petals white, very slightly irregular 
in the outermost flowers only, inversely egg-shaped, or inversely 
heart-shaped, with an incurved point. Anthers yellow. Germen 
egg-oblong, laterally compressed, furrowed. Styles tumid, and 
almost globular at the base ; at first upright, afterwards spreading, 
and finally horizontal, permanent. Stigmas bluntish. Fruit almost 
globose, laterally compressed, and contracted between the carpels, 
so that the fruit is double. Carpels roundish, with 5 ribs and 
4 broad, brown viltce ; the coat erustaceous, and so loose that the 
seed is quite free within ; a transverse section of this seed is 
crescent-shaped. — The root discharges a yellow resinous juice when 
wounded. See Sir J. W. Hooker’s Brit. FI. 
This rare and very local plant has never been found in any other 
part of Britain than about Bodmin, though it is said to-be not un- 
frequent in the south of Europe, and in Greece. Dr. Withering 
says, that cattle are so fond of the plant that they eat it down to the 
ground wherever they can get at it ; so that it is usually found only 
in places where it is so protected by thorns and briers as to be 
inaccessible to them. 
The drawing for the accompanying plate was made from a speci- 
men gathered near Bodmin by Dawson Turner, Esq. in 1799, and 
deposited in the Sherardian Herbarium at the Oxford Garden. 
