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A D O N I S autumnal is-
Corn Adonis, or Pbeafant’s-eye.
" 7
P O L Y A N D R I A Polygynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-leaved. Petals 5 or more, without
a nedtary. Seeds naked.
S pec. C har. Petals about eight, obcordate, concave.
Fruit ovate.
Sy n. Adonis autumnalis. Linn. Sp. Pi. 771. HudJ.
FI. An. 239. With. Bot. Arr. 570. Sibth. Ox. 171,
Curt.Land. Fajc. 3. t. 37.
Flos Adonis. Rail Syn. 251.
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F o r a wild fpecimen of this elegant plant we are obliged to
Mifs Lyfons, who gathered' it in Gloucefterfhire in October
laft. It grows, though rarely, in corn-fields. Mrs. Pleftow, of
Watlington, in Norfolk, obferved it near Denver fluice in that
county.
Root fmall, annual. Stem much branched, upright, leafy,
round, ftriated. Leaves alternate, thrice compound, the feg-
ments linear, alternate, acute. Flowers folitary, terminating
the branches, inodorous, of a beautiful polifhed crimfon, each
petal marked with deep purple at the bafe, and the ftamina,
antherse and ftyles being of the fame dark colour, give a great
brightnefs to the red part. Calyx pale green, fomewhat membranous,
foon falling off. Petals about 8, rarely more, often
fewer, for Linnseus in a manufcript note in his own Species
Plantarutn confeflfes he took the character there from a luxuriant
flower. This fpecies is however diftinct enough from the
pale-fcarlet A. ajlivalis of the fouth of Europe, with which
Haller in his defcription, No. 1158, feems to confound it, as
Linnxus formerly did. In that the petals are obovate and narrow,
the fruit long and cylindrical; in ours the petals are ih-
verfely heart-Ihaped, concave, the fruit rather ovate, and not
half fo long. It is certainly an error in Linnaeus to call the
fruit of A. ajlivalis ovate, and this fubcylindrical. The contrary
is rather the cafe; at leaft the former is truly cylindrical)
and very long and flender compared with ours.