674 POLYANDRXA. POLYGYNIA, Thalictbum. 
Guide ; (but almost equally improbable that these plants should grow 
truly wild there, as in Scotland. E.) S. July—Aug.* * 
THALIC'TRUM. Cal. none: Petals four or five: Capsules 
many, rather beaked, (but ecaudate. E.) 
T. alpi'num. Stem unbranched, almost naked: bunch simple, ter¬ 
minal. 
FI. Dan. 11—Light/. 13. 1, atp. <266—E. Rot. 262—Pet. 71. 72—H. Ox. ix. 
20. 14 —Boerlu Ind. Alt. p. 44. 
A delicate little plant, scarcely a span high. Petals four, whitish, acute. 
Flowers on crooked fruit-stalks. Root-leaves compound, on long leaf¬ 
stalks. {Lea/its roundish, crenate or lobed, dark-green, and shining 
above. E.) Stem in very luxuriant specimens with one nearly sessile 
leaf. Stamens about twelve, and Pistils eight, but variable. 
Alfine Rue-weed. Moist rocks and on the sides of alpine rivulets in 
Scotland and W ales. On Ben Lomond. Dr. Hope. (On Malghyrdy, 
Ben Teskerney, and Craig Cailleach. Mr. Browm. Cronkley Fell, Dur¬ 
ham. Mr. Robson. E.) F. June.f 
T. flaVum. Stem furrowed, leafy: leafits acute, trilid: panicle much 
branched, upright, compact: flowers erect. 
(i?. Rot. 367. E.)— Kniph. 5—FI. Dan. 939 — Morris TJmh. 12. 2 — H. Ox. 
ix. 20. row 2. 1 — Loh. Ohs. .508. 3. and Ic. ii. 56. 1- — Park. 264. 1— Pet. 
71. 9—Ger. 1067. 1— J. B. iii. 486. 
Root yellow. Petals four, cream-coloured. Stamens twenty-four. Pistils 
ten to sixteen. Leajits, the lower irregular, sometimes wedge-shaped, 
* (Astringent, corrosive and diuretic. An infusion has been recommended in dropsy. 
Swediaur. The branches are sufficiently tough to make withs for faggots, for which purpose 
it is always used in the woods where it can be procured. Besides the claspers with which 
it is furnished, the very leaves have a tendency to twine around plants. The hairy plumes 
growing in clusters exhibit in winter a singular and beautiful appearance over the tops of 
bushes, hedges, &c. It is particularly well adapted for covering arbours and bowers in 
pleasure grounds, being of rapid growth and hardy. “ The tubes, lymph-ducts, and air- 
vessels of this plant, (represented in PI. iv. f. 2.) appear in a common magnifier beautifully 
arranged, being large, and admitting the air freely to circulate through them. Our village 
boys avail themselves of this circumstance, cut off a long joint from a dry branch, light it, 
and use it as their seniors do the tobacco pipe; hence they call it Smoke-wood. The 
pores are well seen by drawing some bright-coloured liquor into 111601/’ Journ. Nat. p. 110. 
The long feathery down attached to the seed may often be found at the entrance of holes 
made by mice ; probably dragged there as a valuable material for their nests ; as may be 
the seeds themselves, (though small, abundant), no unimportant accession to the winter 
store; where 
•-— “ Saepe exiguus mus 
Sub tern's posuitque domos atque liorrea fecit.” Virg. Georg, i. 181. 
- - “ Often the little mouse 
Illudes our hopes ; and safely lodged below 
Hath formed his granaries.” 
In France common beggars, to excite compassion, produce ulcers by applying the juice 
to the skin; and the twigs aie there used to make bee-hives, baskets, &c., possibly in a 
warmer climate growing even larger and stronger than with us. E.) 
t (This plant is subject to a minute parasite, which, under the microscope,appears beau¬ 
tiful and interesting ; JEcidium Thalictri of Grev. Scot. Crypt. 4 ; “ growing on the under 
surface of the leaf in clusters of a roundish form ; peridia oblong-cylindrical, bright orange ; 
the mouth paler, and bursting irregularly.” E.) 
