1 18 
ADONIS 
all normal. Achenes fusiform. Styles long, persistent, lengthening in fruit and then covered with 
long spreading silky hairs. 
Local, on calcareous grassland ; from Gloucestershire and Essex northwards to Lincolnshire ; 
apparently extinct in Yorkshire. 
Sweden (central and southern), Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, central Europe, 
Russia, northern Italy, Spain, Bulgaria; Asia. 
Genus io. t Adonis 
Adonis [Dillenius App. Cat. Plant. 109 (1719);] L. Sp. PI. 547 (1753) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 242 (1754); 
Prantl op. cit. 61 et 66 (1891). 
Annual or perennial herbs. Laminae much divided, lobes linear. Inflorescence solitary. In- 
volucre of 5 — 8 bracts (usually regarded as sepals), petaloid, imbricate, deciduous. Sepals (usually 
regarded as petals) 5 — 16, petaloid, yellow or red. Nectar-leaves absent. Stamens 00. Stigma 
deciduous. Achenes in an elongate head. Seeds pendulous. 
About 20 species ; Europe, Asia, northern Africa. 
I. tADONIS AUTUMNALIS. Pheasant’s Eye. Plate 116 
Flos adonis fiore rubro Gerard Herball 310 (1597); Flos adonis Ray ed. 3, 251 (1724). 
Adonis autumnalis L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 771 (1762)!; Smith Eng. Bot. no. 308 (1796)!; FI. Brit. 586 
(1800); Syme Eng. Bot. i, 14 (1863); Rouy et Foucaud FI. France i, 53 (1893); [A. annua var. atrorubens L. 
Sp. PI. 547(1753);] A. annua Miller Gard. Diet. ed. 8, no. 1 (1768); A. atrorubens Dalla Torre und Sarnthein 
Farn- und Bliitenpfl. Tirol ii, 304 (1909). 
leones : — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 308; Curtis FI. Lond. i, 106; Reichenbach, iii, Icon. t. 24, fig. 4621 ; Baxter 
Brit. Phaen. Bot. i, t. 7. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 116. ( a , b ) Fertile shoots. Dorset (G. E. F.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 1102; Bourgeau (Pyr. Espagn.), 364; v. Heurck et Martinis, iv, 151; A. Schultz, 3; 
Welwitsch {Iter Lusiti), 486 ; Wirtgen, xiv, 779. 
Annual. Shoot erect, up to about 4 dm. high, nearly glabrous. Leaves sessile ; laminae twice 
or thrice pinnate, lobes linear acute. Receptacle elongate in fruit. Flowers 1 '5 — 17 cm. in diameter; 
May to September. Bracts (or sepals) purplish, usually 5, somewhat membranous, deciduous, 
glabrous, divaricate. Sepals (or petals) bright crimson, with a very dark purple spot near the base, 
broadly oboval, contiguous or overlapping, concave, often emarginate, 5 — 8. Filaments whitish 
below, purplish above. Anthers brownish-purple. Ovaries dark purple. Achenes 00, broadly 
cylindrical, reticulate. 
Early English records of A. aestivalis would seem to be all referable to A. autumnalis. 
Rare as a weed in cornfields on a chalky or gravelly soil in southern England : Dorset, Isle of Wight, 
Wiltshire, Suffolk, and perhaps elsewhere, though less common than formerly ; usually adventitious. 
Naturalised in Denmark, Germany, Holland, and Belgium ; France, central Europe, southern Europe ; northern 
Africa ; North America (naturalised). 
Genus 11. Thalictrum 
Thalictrum [Tournefort Inst. 270, t. 143 (1700);] L. Sp. PI. 545 (1753) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 242 (1754); 
Prantl in Pflanzenfam. iii, pt. ii, 61 et 66 (1891). 
Perennial herbs. Leaves alternate, lower ones or all petioled ; petioles more or less dilated 
and stipuloid at the base ; laminae compound, leaflets small. Inflorescence usually compound, rarely 
simple. Flowers dioecious or imperfect, protogynous, often anemophilous. Perianth monochlamy- 
deous, petaloid, almost hidden by the stamens ; segments (in the British species) 4 — 5, imbricate 
in bud, small, caducous. Nectar-leaves absent. Stamens about 8 — 00 ; filaments long, coloured, con- 
spicuous ; anthers elongate, projecting beyond the perianth, coloured, conspicuous ; pollen usually 
only slightly viscous. Carpels 15 — 1, each with 1 pendulous ovule; style short or absent; stigma 
rather large, unilateral. Fruit an achene. 
About 80 species ; Europe ; Asia ; North America. 
