LXXXI. — THE MEADOW-RUE. 
Thalictrum flavum Linne. 
I T not infrequently happens that in Families, most members of which exhibit 
some particular grade of physiological organisation, some one exceptional type 
occurs that is apparently much lower or simpler. At first we are tempted to see in 
such cases survivals of some more primitive condition ; but in many cases more 
careful consideration shows that we are dealing with late secondary adaptation of a 
retrogressive character. Such seems to be the case with the self-pollinating Bee 
Orchis in a Family almost exclusively insect-pollinated, with the wind pollinated 
Salad Burnets (Poterium) in Rosace^e^ and with the Meadow-rues {Thalictrum) among 
the Ranunculaccde. 
Thalictrum comprises from seventy to eighty species of erect perennial herbaceous 
plants belonging to the Temperate and colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere. 
They derive their popular name of Meadow-rue from the resemblance of their 
compound leaves, cut up as they are into wedge-shaped segments to those of the 
Rue, long familiar as a medicinal plant ; but this resemblance is one of form only, as 
they have none of the oil-glands and pungent volatile oil of the true Rue. The leaves 
are bi-, or tri-, pinnatisect and have sheathing stipules ; and the flowers are usually 
small, though often massed together, with imbricate, petaloid, deciduous sepals, and 
no petals, but numerous prominent stamens. The flowers are often polygamous, 
and it is apparently the case, as also in Hollies and Strawberries, that the American 
representatives of the group have the sexes more completely separated than they are 
in the Old World species, so that they are described as dioecious. There is no 
honey ; but some species are visited by insects for the sake of their pollen, whilst 
others are apparently, in the main, at least wind-pollinated. We have thus within 
the limits of a single genus much the same difference as that which distinguishes 
Willows and Poplars. The wind-pollinated species are, as is usual, protogynous ; 
but the facts that the anthers in all species dehisce successively and not simultaneously, 
and that the pollen is slightly coherent, suggest the descent of the existing species of 
the genus from an insect-pollinated ancestry. 
The name Thalictrum occurs as dakiKTpov^ thaliktron, in Dioscorides ; but it is 
doubtful to what plant he then referred, the Flixweed, Sisymbrium Sophia Linne, 
being suggested. The name would seem to be derived from OdWco, thallo^ I 
flourish. There is, however, much greater probability that Pliny uses the name, not 
only for the genus to which we now apply it, but for the species T. flavum Linne, of 
which we are now writing. He says ; — 
“ The thalictrum has leaves like those of coriander, only somewhat more unctuous, and a stem resembling that of the 
poppy (in colour). It is found growing everywhere, in champaign localities more particularly. The leaves, applied with 
honey, heal ulcers.” 
In the graceful T. aquilegifolium Linn6 of Southern Europe, which is now much 
grown for ornamental purposes, the anthers are violet : in most other species they are 
