744 POTENTILLA. TCLASS XII. ORDER ill. 



English Botany, t. 862.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 424.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 207. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 97. 



Root tapering, branched, bearing several prostrate creeping stems, 

 long, round, slender, cord-like, smooth, or scattered over with close 

 pressed hairs, rooting from the joints at various intervals, and putting 

 out several leaves and simple lanceolate stipules. Leaves with long 

 slender channeled footstalks, bearing five oblong wedge-shaped leaflets, 

 deeply serrated, the apex three toothed, green above, paler beneath, 

 and clothed more or less thickly with close pressed hairs, the upper 

 surface nearly smooth. Flowers a bright yellow, rather large, solitary, 

 on a long round slender scarcely hairy peduncle^ erect. Calyx with 

 nearly equal hairy spreading segments. Petals broadly heart-shaped, 

 with a short claw, about as long or longer than the calyx. Receptacle 

 hairy. Carpels numerous, small, pale brown, kidney. shaped, roughish 



Habitat. — Meadows, pastures, banks, and road sides; frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering from June to August. 



This is a variable plant in its hairiness, the length of the stems, and 

 the size of its leaves, which depends upon the more or less humid soil 

 in which it has grown. The leaves are sometimes doubly serrated in 

 the upper part, and the stipules deeply cut. The roots have been long 

 esteemed as a febrifuge, from the tonic and astringent principles which 

 they possess ; and by the ancients were variously used in cases of fever, 

 and were applied to wounds and ulcers to suppress hoemorrhage or 

 astringe the parts ; since, however, other and more powerful produc- 

 tions have become known it has gone almost out of use. Besides the 

 purposes of medicine, it has been used in the process of tanning, but 

 for this purpose also it is now much neglected : the leaves, either 

 fresh or when dried, are still esteemed in some of our country districts 

 when made into tea, as a very useful drink in all cases where there is 

 heat or feverishness, as it is said to " purge and purify the blood." 



*** Leaves ternate. 



10. P. triden'tata, Solander. (Fig. 846.) Three-toothed Cinque-foil. 

 Stem ascending, paniculated ; leaves ternate ; leaflets obovate, wedge- 

 shaped, three toothed at the apex, coriaceous, smooth above, hairy 

 beneath ; petals oblong, longer than the calyx ; carpels with a tuft of 

 hairs on the top. 



English Botany, t. 2389.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 425. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 207. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 97. 



Root woody, with fibrous branches, dark brown. Stems several, 

 herbaceous, curved at the base, becoming erect, from three to six inches 

 high, round, hairy, branched upwards in somewhat dichotomous 

 manner. Leaves ternate, the lower ones on channeled footstalks, 

 hairy, the upper ones sessile, or nearly so, leaflets obovate, wedge- 

 shaped, of a leathery texture, the apex three, sometimes five toothed, 

 otherwise entire, smooth above, paler and hairy beneath. Stipules 



