Agrimony is a genus of plants of the family Rosaceae consisting of slender perennial herbs found in temperate regions. The leaves of common agrimony are used as a yellow dye. Research Agrimony
Alchemilla is a genus of plants of the family Rosaceae. The flowers are small and greenish; the leaves rounded in outline. The alpine species has compound leaves like a miniature lupine and is found over the Scottish Highlands. The genus is so named from its association with alchemists in former times, who collected dew from its leaves for their operations. Research Alchemilla
The almond (Prunus dulcis, formerly Amygdalus communis) is a deciduous shrub or small tree native to the Caucasus region, of the family Rosaceae with a smooth reddish coloured bark, spreading branches and alternate, stalked, rectangular to lanceolate, glossy and finely serrate leaves. The almond grows usually to the height of six meters, and is akin to the peach and nectarine. The flowers are sessile, white or pink in colour and appear in early spring before the leaves. The fruit is an elliptical, light-green coloured, velvety drupe which contains one oval seed in a hard- pitted shell. The almond was introduced to southern Europe in ancient times, and started being grown in Britain in the 16th century for its blossom, since the fruit doe not ripen in Britain. Research Almond
Apple (Pyrus Malus), is the fruit of a well-known tree of the natural order Rosaceae, or the tree itself. The apple belongs to the temperate regions of the globe, over which it is almost universally spread and cultivated. The tree attains a moderate height, with spreading branches; the leaf is ovate; and the flowers are produced from the wood of the former year, but more generally from very short shoots or spurs from wood of two years' growth. The original of all the varieties of the cultivated apple is the wild crab, which has a small and extremely sour fruit, and is a native of most of the countries of Europe. The apple was probably introduced into Britain by the Romans, and there are now six thousand recorded varieties of English apple, divided into three categories: eating, cooking and cider.
To the facility of multiplying varieties by grafting is to be ascribed the amazing extension of the sorts of apples. Many of the more marked varieties are known by general names, as pippins, codlins, rennets, etc. Apples for the table are characterized by a firm juicy pulp, a sweetish acid flavour, regular form, and beautiful colouring; those for cooking by the property of forming by the aid of heat into a pulpy mass of equal consistency, as also by their large size and keeping properties; apples for cider must have a considerable degree of astringency, with richness of juice. The propagation of apple-trees is accomplished by seeds, cuttings, suckers, layers, budding, or grafting, the last being almost the universal practice. The tree thrives best in a rich deep loam or marshy clay, but will thrive in any soil provided it is not too wet or too dry. The wood of the apple-tree or the common crab is hard, close-grained, and often richly coloured, and is suitable for turning and cabinet work. The fermented juice (verjuice) of the crab is employed in cookery and medicine. Apples are largely imported into Great Britain from the Continent and the United States and Canada. The designation apple, with various modifying words, is applied to a number of fruits having nothing in common with the apple proper, as alligator-apple, love-apple, etc Research Apple
The Apple Leaf Skeletonizer (Eutrmula pariana) is a moth of the family Glyphiptrigidae with a wing span of between 11 and 13 mm found in Europe and Asia flying in two generations during May and the end of summer. The caterpillars feed on the surface of the leaves of various trees of the Rosaceae family, notably apple. Research Apple Leaf Skeletonizer
The apricot (Prunus armeniaca) is a species of the plum division of the Rosaceae. It is a native of China, brought to England from Italy in 1652. It is a hardy tree bearing stone fruit closely related to the peach. The leaves are broad and roundish with a pointed apex, finely serrated and petiole, about two centimetres long. The flowers are sessile, white, tinged with a dusky red. The fruit ripens around the end of July, to the middle of August and is a drupe like the plum with a thin, downy outer-skin enclosing the yellow flesh surrounding a woody, large, smooth compressed stone. The oil of the stone is used in cosmetics as a skin softener. Research Apricot
Bird Cherry (Prunus padus) is a deciduous shrub or small tree of the family Rosaceae, native to Europe and Asia, with peeling brown bark and alternate, stalked, ovate and finely serrate leaves with flattened petioles. The flowers are white in colour and arranged in long, loose racemes which are erect at first and then later drooping. The fruit is a globose, shiny, black, bitter-sweet drupe. Research Bird Cherry
Bloodroot or Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) is a perennialherb of the family Rosaceae native to Britain, Europe and western Asia. It has a stout rhizome and ascending or almost erect, on-rooting branched stems. The basal leaves are stalked, coarsely-toothed, termate and arranged in a rosette. The stem leaves are sessile, ternate and have a pair of palmately lobed leafy stipules. The flowers are yellow, long-stalked and arranged in loose terminal cymes, having only four petals and sepals. The astringentroot is used in medicine as an analgesic, for tanning, and in dyeing. Research Bloodroot
The bramble (Rubus fruticosus) or blackberry, is a prickly deciduous shrub of the family Rosaceae, allied to the raspberry. Bramble has sprawling, or erect, prickly, woody, arched and biennial stems that often root where they touch the ground. The leaves are stalked and have three to five, oval, serrate leaflets with white or grey, hairy undersides. The flowers are white or pink in colour, arranged in terminal racemes and are borne on separate, erect, second-year stems that die after flowering. Bramble is a prolific wild plant in Britain, and bears compound fleshy drupes known as blackberries in autumn, these starting red in colour and turning a glossy black when ripe. Research Bramble
The cabbage rose (Rosacentifolia) or pale rose, as it is also known, is a deciduous shrub of the family Rosaceae with thin brown branches armed with numerous greatly flattened almost straight prickles. The leaves are odd pinnate, with between five and seven ovate to elliptic, dark-green coloured, serrate leaflets which are softly hairy beneath. The petioles and peduncles are almost thornless, but have glandular bristles. The flowers are fragrant, pink in colour, with many petals which are whiter towards the base. The fruit consists of numerous hairy achenes enclosed in the enlarged, fleshy, flask-shaped, bright red receptacle. Research Cabbage Rose
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Agrimony
