1. S. procùmbens, L. Leaflets 3, wedge-shaped, 3-toothed at the apex; petals yellow.—Alpine summits of the White Mts., and northward. (Eu.)
12. ALCHEMÍLLA, Tourn. Lady's Mantle.
Calyx-tube inversely conical, contracted at the throat; limb 4-parted with as many alternate accessory lobes. Petals none. Stamens 1–4. Pistils 1–4; the slender style arising from near the base; achenes included in the tube of the persistent calyx.—Low herbs, with palmately lobed or compound leaves, and small corymbed greenish flowers. (From Alkemelyeh, the Arabic name, having reference to the silky pubescence of some species.)
A. arvénsis, Scop. (Parsley Piert.) Small annual (3–8´ high), leafy; leaves 3-parted, with the wedge-shaped lobes 2–3-cleft, pubescent; flowers fascicled opposite the axils.—Va. and N. C. (Adv. from Eu.)
13. AGRIMÒNIA, Tourn. Agrimony.
Calyx-tube top-shaped, contracted at the throat, beset with hooked bristles above, indurated in fruit and enclosing the 2 achenes; the limb 5-cleft, closed after flowering. Petals 5. Stamens 5–15. Styles terminal. Seed suspended.—Perennial herbs, with interruptedly pinnate leaves, and yellow flowers in slender spiked racemes; bracts 3-cleft. (Name a corruption of Argemonia, of the same derivation as Argemone, p. 59.)
1. A. Eupatòria, L. (Common Agrimony.) Leaflets 5–7 with minute ones intermixed, oblong-obovate, coarsely toothed; petals twice the length of the calyx.—Borders of woods, common. July–Sept. (Eu.)
2. A. parviflòra, Ait. (Small-flowered A.) Leaflets crowded, 11–19, with smaller ones intermixed, lanceolate, acute, deeply and regularly cut-serrate, as well as the stipules; petals small.—Woods and glades, N. Y. and N. J. to Ga., west to Mich., Kan., and La.
14. POTÈRIUM, L. Burnet.
Calyx with a top-shaped tube, constricted at the throat, persistent; the 4 broad petal-like spreading lobes imbricated in the bud, deciduous. Petals none. Stamens 4–12 or more, with flaccid filaments and short anthers. Pistils 1–3; the slender terminal style tipped with a tufted or brush-like stigma. Achene (commonly solitary) enclosed in the 4-angled dry and thickish closed calyx-tube. Seed suspended.—Chiefly perennial herbs, with unequally pinnate leaves, stipules coherent with the petiole, and small, often polygamous or diœcious flowers crowded in a dense head or spike at the summit of a long and naked peduncle, each bracteate and 2-bracteolate. (Name ποτήριον, a drinking-cup, the foliage of Burnet having been used in the preparation of some medicinal drink.)