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SANGUISORBA officinalis.
Great Burnet.
J 3
TETRANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. Char. Cal. 4-cleft. Germen between the calyx
and corolla. Seed 1 .
Spec. Char. Spikes ovate.
Syn. Sanguisorba officinalis. Linn. Sp. PI. 169. Sm. FI.
B rit. 186. Huds.6 5 . W ith .1 9 9 . H u ll.35. Relh.6 1 .
Sibth. 5 7 . Abbot. 31. Mart. Rust. t. 142.
S. major, flore spadiceo. R aii Syn. 203»
A s the Poterium, v. 12. t. 860. prefers such chalky or limestone
situations as are very dry and open, this plant, closely
allied to it in habit and qualities, though -different in botanic
characters, is found in rather moist and rich pastures, but always
in limestone countries. It is most abundant in the North,
and flowers in June and July.
Root strong and perennial. Stem 2 feet high, erect, furrowed,
with but few leaves, panicjed above. Leaves unequally
pinnate, the leaflets opposite, on stalks, ovate or somewhat
heartshaped, deeply and sharply crenate, smooth, veiny,
having, in the larger leaves, a pair of little toothed appendages
at the base of their partial stalks. Thé radical leaves
stand on long footstalks; the rest are nearly sessile, with a
pair of lunate, toothed, stem-clasping stipules. Flowers of a
dark dull purple, in dense, ovate, obtuse, terminal, long-
stalked heads. The uppermost flowers expand first; which is
singular. Calyx inferior, in 4 green, ovate, acute segments.
Corolla deeply divided into 4 purple, ovate, acute, equal,
spreading segments, hairy at their base, which appear to
crown the germen; and hence is derived the very unusual character
of the genus as above mentioned. The corolla has,
however, sfrictly a tube, though it so closely enfolds the germen
as to seem its proper integument. Stamina 4, equal.
Style simple, with a 4-cleft stigma. Seed solitary, elliptical.
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