POTENTILLA FRUTICOSA. 



SHRUBBY CINQUE-FOIL. 



NATURAL ORDER, ROSACEA. 



PoTENTiLLA FRUTICOSA, L. — Stem erect, shrubby, two to four feet high, very much branched; 

 leaves pinnate; leaflets five to seven, closely crowded, oblong-lanceolate, entire, silky, 

 especially beneath; stipules scale-like; flowers numerous, yellow, terminating the branch- 

 lets. (Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. See alsoWood's Class- 

 Book of Botany) 



CCORDING to Dr. Gray, the name of the genus 

 Potentilla is " a kind of diminutive from potcns, powerful, 

 alluding to the reputed medicinal power, of which, in fact, these 

 plants possess very little, being merely mild astringents, like the 

 rest of the tribe." Almost every common plant had some great 

 virtue attached to it by the people of the olden time, and for 

 this one it was claimed that " it is good against all sorts of agues 

 and fevers, whether Continent, Continual, or Contermitting : 

 whether they be burning fevers only, Malign or Pestilential. It 

 cools and attemperates the blood, and Humors, and is an excel- 

 lent thing for a Lotion, Injection, Gargle, and the like, for Sore 

 Mouths, Ulcers, Cankers, and other corrupt, foul, and running 

 Sores. The juice mixt with a little Honey, prevails against 

 Hoarseness, as also the Cough of the Lungs." These are some 

 of the reputed powers to which Dr. Gray refers, and which 

 suggested the present botanical name of the family. In old 

 writers we find the appellations Pentaphyllum and Quiuqiiefolium, 

 Greek and Latin names, respectively, for " five-leaved," the leaves 

 of most of the species being in fives, and the present common 

 name, " Cinque-foil," is, of course, identical with these. But 



