Agrimony.
Agrimonia Eupatoria. Rose Family.
One or two feet high. Leaves.—Divided into several coarsely toothed leaflets. Flowers.—Small, yellow, in slender spiked racemes. Calyx.—Five-cleft, beset with hooked teeth. Corolla.—Of five petals. Stamens.—Five to fifteen. Pistils.—One to four.
The slender yellow racemes of the agrimony skirt the woods throughout the later summer. In former times the plant was held in high esteem by town physician and country herbalist alike. Emerson longed to know
Only the herbs and simples of the wood,
Rue, cinquefoil, gill, vervain, and agrimony.
Up to a recent date the plant has been dried and preserved by country people and might be seen exposed for sale in the shops of French villages. It has also been utilized in a dressing for shoe-leather. When about to flower it yields a pale yellow dye.
Chaucer calls it egremoine. The name is supposed to be derived from the Greek title for an eye-disease, for which the juice of a plant similarly entitled was considered efficacious. The crushed flower yields a lemon-like odor.
Yellow Wood Sorrel.
Oxalis stricta. Geranium Family.
Stem.—Erect. Leaves.—Divided into three delicate clover-like leaflets. Flowers.—Golden-yellow. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five petals. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One, with five styles.
All summer the small flowers of the yellow wood sorrel show brightly against their background of delicate leaves. The plant varies greatly in its height and manner of growth, flourishing abundantly along the roadsides. The small leaflets are open to the genial influence of sun and air during the hours of daylight, but at night they protect themselves from chill by folding one against another.