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AGRIMONIA Eupatoria.
Common Agrimony.
BODECJNDRIA Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-toothed, with an appendage at its
base. Petals 5, inserted on the calyx. Seeds 2, in
the bottom of the calyx.
Spec. Char. Stem-leaves pinnated; the odd leaflet on a
footstalk. Fruit bristly.
Syn. Agrimonia Eupatoria. Linn. Sp. PL 643. Sm. FI.
Brit. 5 1 1 . Huds. 2 0 6 . JVith. 4 4 3 . Hull. 104. Relh.
182. Sibth. 150. Abbot. 104. Curt. Land. fasc. 5.
t. 32. Mart. Rust. t. 37. Woodv. Suppl. t. 258.
Agrimonia. Ran Syn. 202.
A g r im o n y is common every where in the rough borders
of fields and other waste places, flowering in June and July.
When rubbed it exhales a peculiar but not unpleasant aromatic
scent. Its astringent and bitter qualities render it mildly tonic
and stimulant: but it is rather a popular than a classical medicine,
and makes the principal and most efficacious part of
some empirical herb teas.
The root is perennial, red, and very astringent. Stem
upright, about 2 feet in height, leafy, angular and hairy.
Leaves alternate, hairy, interruptedly pinnate, with a terminal
stalked leaflet; the larger leaflets somewhat elliptical, acute,
deeply serrated; the little intermediate ones roundish, lobed.
Stipulae falcate, cut. Spike terminal, long, of many deep-yellow,
nearly sessile, flowers. Calyx bell-shaped, furrowed, 5-
cleft,hairy, with a lobed appendage at its base, which we should
call a bractea. Stamina and 5 petals inserted into the rim of
the calyx. Germens and styles 2. The permanent hardened
calyx, rough with hooked bristles, serves as a capsule to the
2 seeds.-
This genus evidently belongs to, the natural order of Rosacece,
with which it agrees in qualities.