Flora Medica

A small tree, with dark smooth branches. Leaves ovate, obtuse atthe base, quite entire, cottony on the under side. Flowers largesolitary, with a cottony calyx and bright pink petals. Fruit a turbinateor roundish angular pome, covered with a thin cottony down,extremely austere, but having a peculiar fragrance. The seeds areofficinal for the sake of the mucus theyare covered with, and whichcan be extracted by hot water. The fruit forms an agreeable marmalade,and is sometimes used in the preparation of a domestic wine ofsome excellence.SANGUISORBE.E.Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 148.ALCHIMILLA.Calyx inferior, tubular, permanent; the limb spreading,in 8 segments; 4 outer alternate ones smallest. Corollanone. Filaments 4, from the mouth of the calyx, opposite tothe smaller segments, awl-shaped, short. Carpel in the bottomof the calyx, generally solitary; style from the base of theovary, about the length of the stamens ;Stigma capitate. Achenium1, occasionally 2, elliptical, compressed, naked, covered bythe closed permanent calyx. Flowers small, green, often inconspicuous.481. A. vulgaris Linn, sp.pl 178. Eng. Bot. t. 597. SmithEng. Fl. i. 223. DC.prodr. ii. 589. In dry subalpine Europeanpastures.Root woody, with long fibres. Stems from 4 to 8 inches high, moreor less procumbent, alternately branched, round, hairy, leafy, terminatingin numerous little corymbose clusters of green flowers, on smooth,almost capillary, stalks. Radical leaves numerous, on long footstalks,large, roundish-kidney-shaped, bluntly lobed, plaited, serrated ;of afine green above most; hairy beneath ;stem-leaves of the same form,but a great deal smaller, alternate, on short stalks, with a pair of largenotched stipules_to each. Flowers small, green, in erect dichotomoushairy corymbs. The decoction slightly tonic.235