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A N E M O N E nemorofa.
Wood Anemone.
10 o.
, P O L Y A N D R I A Polygynm.
G en. Char. Cal. none. Petals fix or nine. Seeds
many.
Spec. Char. Seeds pointed, without tails. Leaflets
lobed. Stem fingle-flowered.
Syn. Anemone nemorofa. Linn. Sp. PI. 76a. Hudf.
FI. An. 236. With. Pot. Arr. 566. Relh. Cant.
209. Sibth. Ox. 170. Curt. Lond.Fafc. a. /. 38.
A. nemorum alba. Rail Syn. 259.
G r o v e s and thickets throughout England are plentifully
decorated with this elegant plant in the month of May, and it
forms one of the moft pleafing ornaments of that favourite
feafon. The blofloms expand only in fine weather, drooping
and folding up their petals againft: rain. Goats and fheep are
the only domeftic animals that will eat the wood anemone. To
the former its acrimony is pleafant and wholefome, as they
peculiarly delight in vegetables of this order; to the latter,
when not accuftomed to fuch food, it occafions a bloody flux,
accordinrg to Dr. "Withering.
The root is oblong, black externally, a little flefhy. Stem
from a terminal bud, folitary, Ample and fingle-flowered.
Leaves ternate, flightly hairy, paler beneath, the leaflets va-
rioufly lobed and cu t: radical ones on long foot-ftalks : thofe
on the ftem 3 together, not far from the flower, on Ihorter dilated
(talks. Flower on a downy flower-ftalk, folitary, without
calyx or bradteae, unlefs the (tern-leaves (hould be deemed
fo. Petals about 6, elliptical, veiny, often purplifh at the
back. Stamina much (horter than the corolla; fometimes
changed into narrow petals as in the double Hepatica. Ger-
mens downy.
The leaves, and even petals, are fometimes fprinkled with
a minute fungus, taken by Mr. Curtis for the work of fome
infedt, but defcribed by late authors under the generic name
of JEcidium. See Mr. Sowerby’s Englifii Fungi, t. 53.