THE COMMON AGRIMONY— continued. 
woody. The leaves are all pinnate, the lower ones reaching a length of from three 
to seven inches and made up of from three to ten pairs of deeply serrate leaflets, the 
larger from one to three inches long, alternating with others less than half an inch 
in length. They are shaggy with soft silky hairs on their under surfaces ; and^ 
when bruised, give off a not unpleasant aromatic smell, suggesting the presence 
of coumarin or a comparison with the Tansy, to slight resemblances to which it 
owes the name of Wild White Tansy formerly applied to it. 
The numerous distant flowers are about half an inch across, and are, in fact, 
shortly stalked, so that the inflorescence is technically a raceme. They expand 
in the early morning and remain open for three days. At first the stigmas are 
receptive, but the anthers are not mature : then, according to the late Lord 
Avebury, the anthers open extrorsely, i.e. turned away from the stigmas ; and 
finally they bend towards the stigmas. Thus, failing cross-pollination, self-pollination 
is ensured. 
After fertilisation, the spikes elongate still more, and the pedicels bend 
downward. The obconic receptacular tube shrinks in deep furrows throughout 
its length, and the little hooked spines which form a dense chevaux-de-frise round its 
upper end spread outward, ready to catch in the fur of any passing animal. 
The Sussex name Church-steeple for the tall inflorescence is at least more elegant 
than the Durham name Rat-tail; while the New Forest term Harvest-lice for the 
clinging burs is certainly expressive. 
A closely-related form, treated by Sir Joseph Hooker as merely a sub-species, 
is the A. odorata of Philip Miller, which is taller and more branched ; has its flowers 
closer together and larger, its receptacular tube bell-shaped and scarcely at all 
furrowed in the fruit stage ; while the lower spines point downward ; and minute 
glands on the under surface of the leaves give off a resinous lemon-like perfume. 
