ICOSANDRIA— POLYGYNIA. Tormentilla. 427 



its excellent author. A young student, desirous of judg- 

 ing on points like this, will do well to recollect that if 

 number, or any other character, be used to discriminate 

 genera otherwise apparently distinct, still no character is 

 of itself in all cases absolute. In Gentiana and many 

 others, number is of no consequence at all, and will 

 sometimes hardly distinguish species. In Saxifraga a 

 superior or inferior germen makes no generic difference, 

 though in general the most absolute of all characters. 

 Superficial and partial views are dangerous to science. 

 Ringent flowers, with 2 long and 2 short stamens, vary 

 in many instances to a regular 5-cleft corolla, with 5 equal 

 stamens. But this will hardly be thought to set aside the 

 natural orders of Verticillatce and Personatce, or the class 

 Didynamia of Linnaeus. 



1. T. officinalis. Common Tormentil, or Septfoil. 



Stem ascending, branched. Leaves almost sessile. Stipulas 

 cut. 



T. officinalis. Fl. Br. 552. Engl. Bot. v. 12. t. 863. With. 476. 



Curt.Lond.fasc.5. t.35. Hook. Scot. 164. Part. v. 1.240. 

 T. erecta. Linn. Sp. PI. 716. mild. u. 2. 11 12. Huds. 225. Hull. 



112. Relh.\9S. fVoodv. t.9. Fl. Dan. t. 5S9. 

 Tormentilla. Raii Syn. 257. Ger. Em. 992. /. Lob. Ic. 696./. 



Tillands Tc. 30./. Brunf. Herb. v. 1. 85./ Trag. Hist. 503. f. 



Matth.Talgr.v. 2.297./. Comer. £pi/. 685./, excellent. Lome. 



Kreuterb. 243./ 

 Heptuphyllum. Fuchs. Hist. 260./ 



Potentilla Tormentilla. Sibth. 162. Abbot. 1 14 Nestl. Potent. 65. 

 P. tetrapetala. Hall.jun. in Ser. Mus. v. 1.51. 

 Fragaria. n. 1117. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 47. 



In barren pastures, heaths, and bushy places. 



Perennial. June., Juhj. 



Root woody, internally red, very astringent. Stems weak, slender 

 and wiry, siip})orting themselves on neighbouring bushes, often 

 procumbent, more or less branched. Leaves of 3 oblong, acute, 

 deeply ."serrated, dark green leii/lcts, somewhat hairy, especially 

 tlie ribs underneath, with a very short, if any, common /(jotstalk. 

 SHjmlas smaller than the leaflets, deeply cut. Flowers small, 

 bright yellow, on slender hairy .stalks, mucli longer than the 

 leaves. (mI. ribl)e(l, hairy. Seeds few, wrinkled in the upper 

 part. Thcjlouers have, very rarely indeed, 5 petals, and con- 

 sequently 10 segments to the ealyr ; an accident not uncommon 

 in several plants. 



The late Miss Johnes of llafod — " herself a fairer /lower,' 



•* nntimehj plucked, soon fadrd " .' — gathered the Tormentil in 

 Cardiganshire with doid>le blossoms, like little vcllnw ro^cs. 



