AGRIMONIA STRIATA Michx.
Slender, commonly I %°--2° high (8'-5°, simple to deli cately paniculate-branched, minutely glandulose nearly through out, viscid above and in the racemes, agreeably aromatic. Stem glabrous or with scattered spreading hairs (sometimes thinly hir sute at the base, and rarely finely subpubescent above), the slen der leafstalks thinly hairy-pubescent to glabrate, scabrous on the lower side. Leaves rarely reaching nearly the extreme size of those of A. hirsuta, but usually much smaller. Leaflets sessile or subpetiolulate or the odd leaflet on a slender, sometimes foliolate stalk, commonly two pairs (1-4 pairs, the larger number occurring only rarely and on the lowest leaves), thin, glabrous or nearly so above, below sprinkled with pellucid glandules and sparingly his pidulous on the larger nerves, the margins subciliate. The leaf lets are somewhat variable in form, but are commonly blunter and more obovate-cuneate than those of hirsitta, with broader, less acute teeth, the marginal pattern mostly coarsely crenate-dentate to boldly crenate; sometimes they are throughout narrowly ob ovate-oblong with broad, shallow, semicrenate teeth ; on the re duced often trifoliate upper leaves they may be very narrow and sharply dentate-serrate. Interposed leaflets elliptic to obovate, acute, often confined to the distal interspace, usually a small or minute entire pair, occasionally larger and dentate-lobed, rarely with a minute pair on either side. Stipules smaller and narrower than in hirsilta, rarely becoming ;4' wide, often very small, lance olate to semi-cordate, cut-serrate to deeply incised, the lowest of ten entire. Inflorescence varying from a short terminal raceme to a delicately branched nearly naked loose panicle, the glandu lose racemes only 3'-6' long and rather loosely flowered. Flowers very small, 2"-3" wide, pale yellow, on slightly spreading pedicels r" or less long; anther-cells contiguous. Bracts minute, ciliolate ; bracteoles ovate, 3.lobed or entire. Flower-buds subglobose, al most truncate, the sepals ovate-oblong, obtuse, downy-canescent within the apical margins. Mature fruit subspreading or nod ding, very small, I"—I wide, the body subhemispheric, 1" long below the marginless rim, pellucid-glandulose, bristles few and weak, short, erect and slightly spreading, equalled or exceeded by the truncate calycular process which caps the very tumid disk ; sulcae rather broad and shallow,'converging into the narrow and curved stipe-like base. Roots developing tuberous thickenings
which reach a size of 3' X 2"; elongated roots sometimes show two or three successive swellings. (Plate 283, fig. 6.) Hilly woodland, mostly in light rich soil ; of scattered growth, or forming loose colonies, but never massed in close groups.
Begins to flower at New York from about the middle to the end of fuly and continues to bloom into early September.
This species need be compared only with A. kirsitta which, in its stouter forms, it sometimes closely resembles. It differs most obviously in its tuberous roots, lesser size and more slender habit, nearly glabrous stem and branches, delicate short racemes, smaller flowers with obtuse sepals, much smaller hemispheric fruit with unmargined disk and few mostly erect bristles, smaller narrower stipules and more crenate leaves. The leaves, generally fewer than in A. hirszthr, are more obovate in general outline, the more slender leafstalk rougher below and more narrowly and deeply grooved along the upper side, the leaflets mostly more obversely broadened and rounded at the apex, the pairs separated by wider intervals, the lowest pair relatively much smaller, the interposed leaflets much less developed, the petiolar portion of the leafstalk longer. In its earlier stages the inflorescence is strikingly different from that of hirsuta. In the latter the longer and stouter villous racemes are closely flowered and conspicuously bracteose ; in striata the delicately slender rearly glabrous racemes are more viscid-glandu lar and much less closely flowered, with minute inconspicuous bracts and rounded-truncate instead of pointed flower buds.
In adopting the name striata for this species I have simply fol lowed Dr. Gray who, having seen Michaux's material, cites the name as a synonym, not of A. Eupatoria, but of A. Eupaton'a var. parviflora of Hooker, the plant here taken up, giving to the ref erence his mark of authentication. (T. & G. Fl. loc. cit.).