iEGOPODIUM Podagraria,
Gout-w eed.
P E N T A N D R I A JDigynia,
G en. Char. General or partial Invol. none. Fruit
ovate-oblong, ribbed. Petals heart-fhaped, with
an indexed point, unequal.
Spec. Char........................
Sy n . iEgopodium Podagraria. Linn. Sp. PI. 379.
Sm. FI. B rit. 334. Hudf. 129. With. 314.
Hull. 64. Relh. 136. Sibth. 103. Abbot. 69.
Angelica fylveftris minor, feu erratica. Rati Syn. 208.
A VERY general weed in fhady wafte places, very troublesome
in gardens whofe foil is rich or moift, as the creeping
roots fpread to a wide extent, and are difficult to extirpate.
The flowers appear plentifully in May and June, but, except
the roots are confined, produce little or no feed.
The Items are about afoot high, ere£t, not much branched,
leafy, furrowed. Radical leaves on long flalks, twice temate ;
the reft Amply ternate, oppofite, and on fhorter dilated ftalks :
all the leaflets are large, pretty uniform, ovate, acute, doubly
or unequally ferrated, fmooth. Umbels terminal, erect,
folitary, of many rays, but without any general or partial
involucrum. Flowers pure white. Petals a little unequal in
fize, broad, heart-fhaped from their incurved points. Fruit
elliptical, rather compreffied, fmooth, with 3 prominent ribs
to each feed.
The Agopodium has an acrid pungent root, fuppofed to
agree in qualities with the more a (Stive Imperatoria or Mafter-
wort, and formerly ufed as a cataplafm in the gout, whence
the Englifh name. It has alfo been called Herb-Gerard, hot,
as it feems, from our old herbalift, for according to Dodonzeus
that name is of Flemifh qrigin j and though our countryman
repeats it often in his herbal, with apparent complacency,
he does not appropriate it to himfelf.