DODECANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Agkimonia. 575 
woods and hedges ; (especially in Kent, Hertfordshire, about Gravesend, 
and in Northamptonshire, but very few westward E.) ^T. April—May.* 
AGRIMO'NIA.f Calyx five-tootlied, with a lobed appendage 
at its base : Petals five : Seeds two, in a capsule at the 
bottom of the indurated calyx. 
A. eupato'ria. Stem-leaves winged ; terminal, one-stalked ; fruit (or 
calyx) hispid. 
Curt. 317— (E. Bot. 1335. E.)— Kniph. 5— Woodv. 258— Ludw. 29— Mill. 
III. — FI. Dan. 588— Ger. 575— Blackw. 283— Fuchs. 244— J. B. ii. p. k. 
298— Dod. 28. 1— Lob. Obs. 394. 2— Ger. Em. 712— Park. 594. 1— 
Matth. 1014— Trag. 514— Lonic. i. 218. 1. 
Stem cylindrical, two feet high, roughish, hairy. Leaves a span long, 
hairy, covered with rising dots, and segments ending in small reddish 
glands, interruptedly winged; the smallest pair of leafits entire, the others 
deeply serrated, oblong-egg-shaped. Fruit-stalks surrounded at the top 
with a sort of outer calyx, which is cloven into five spear-shaped irregu¬ 
lar segments, hairy at the edges and the outside. Within this the fruit- 
stalk is covered with white upright bristles, above which again is a cir¬ 
cle of numerous green awns hooked at the end, and within these, the pro¬ 
per calyx of five leaves, spear-shaped, concave, glandular without, with¬ 
in marked with three deeper green lines, terminating in a reddish point. 
Petals egg-shaped, concave, very slightly notched at the end, twice as 
long as the cup. Stamens five to twelve. Germen crowned with the 
calyx, and a yellowish fleshy receptacle. Styles thread-shaped. Sum¬ 
mits, two thin lips at the end of each style. Capsule egg-shaped, hairy. 
* Hornbeam loves a poor stiff soil, on the sides of hills ; is easily transplanted, and bears 
lopping, (from which practice it suffers such general mutilation that it is rare to behold a 
perfect tree. E.) In 1764, in Lord Petre’s park at Writtle in Essex, stood a Hornbeam 
tree, measuring full twelve feet in girth, at five feet above the ground. Bath. Soc. vol. i. 
Mr. Marsham. Cattle eat the leaves, but pasturage will not flourish in its shade. The 
wood burns like a candle, being highly inflammable, as was well known to the ancients : 
<c Carpinus taedas fissa facesque dabit.” E.) 
It is very white, tough, harder than that of hawthorn, and capable of supporting a great 
weight. It is useful in turning, and for many implements of husbandry, (especially celebrated 
for yokes for coupling oxen, and therefore designated la, juga, (q. d. conjugalis ,) by the 
Greeks and Romans. E.) It makes cogs for mill wheels, even superior to yew. The in¬ 
ner bark is much used in Scandinavia to dye yellow. Phal&nci brumata and rostralis, (as 
also Livia(Coccus) Carpini , E.) feed upon it. 
(The superior excellence of Hornbeam lies in its fitness for skreen-fences for sheltering 
gardens, nurseries, and young plantations from the severities of the winter season. It may 
be trained to almost any height, and by keeping it trimmed on the sides it becomes thick 
of branches, and consequently thick of leaves, which being by their nature retained upon 
the plant after they wither, a Hornbeam hedge produces a degree of shelter nearly equal to 
that of a brick wall, (with the advantage of a better regulated temperature. E.) Trea¬ 
tise on Planting. It was long in great request in France, Holland, and England, for the 
construction of mazes, alleys, labyrinths and “ arching shades,” adopted in the ancient 
style of gardening; but since the decline of topiarian taste, the lavish eulogium of Evelyn 
is scarcely applicable, and we have no longer the enjoyment of the most effectual umbracu- 
lum frondium. In some parts of Germany, properly pruned, it makes an impenetrable 
fence against cattle. As underwood it affords stakes, edders, and charcoal. E.) 
f (From aypos, a field ; and pevou, to inhabit; its usual station being in corn-fields. E.) 
