746 POTENTILLA. [CLASS Xli. ORDER 111. 



Hoot large, thick, tapering, woody. Stem round, slender, wiry, 

 curved at the base, becoming erect, smooth or scattered over with silky 

 hairs, branched in a dichotomous manner above. Leaves alternate, 

 sessile, of three spreading leaJletSy narrow, oblong, wedge-shaped, or 

 lanceolate wedge-shaped, deeply cut in a serrated manner in the upper 

 half, with spreading lanceolate teeth, of a dark green above, paler be- 

 neath, with prominent ribs, and more or less scattered over with close 

 pressed silky hairs. Floivers mostly uumerous, solitary, on slender 

 peduncles, terminating the stem, and from the axis of the divarications. 

 Calyx with four smaller and four larger lanceolate spreading segments, 

 sometimes there are five of each. Petals four or five, broadly heart- 

 shaped, longer than the calyx. Receptacle small, hairy, bearing a few 

 smooth pale somewhat kidney-shaped carpels, slightly rugose. 



JIahitat. — Moors and bleak heathy places; common. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This is a variable plant in appearance, but constant in its specific 

 character. It mostly produces a considerable number of flowers, and 

 is erect from the curved base, or much branched and spreading when 

 grown in dry sandy situations, forming straggling tufts by its slender 

 entangled branches. 



The roots have a slight aromatic odour, with an austere stiptic taste, 

 black externally, and reddish within, and containing more tanning 

 principle than almost any other known vegetable; they are used in the 

 Hebrides and Orkney Islands for the purpose of tanning leather. The 

 roots bruised and boiled in water, to which it yields its principle, have 

 long been used as a remedy in intermittent fevers and diarrhoeas, and 

 as well as in relaxed sore throat, spongy gums, or ulcers of the tongue 

 and mouth, in which cases it is still applied beneficially by the 

 country people, but otherwise it is now much neglected. 



13. P. nemo'ralis, Nestl. (Fig. 849.) Trailing Tormentil. Stem 

 procumbent, scarcely branched ; leaves petiolated ; leaflets three, or 

 five, obovate, wedge-shaped, deeply serrated ; stipules simple, or two 

 or three cleft. 



Lindley, Synopsis, p. 98. — P. Tormentilla, e. nemoralis, Ser. — De 

 Cand. Prod. 2. p. 574. — P. procumbens, Sibth. — Tormentilla reptans, 

 Linn. — English Botany, t. 864. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 429. — 

 Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 208. 



Root small, branched, slender, woody. Stem round, slender, wiry, 

 prostrate or ascending, slightly branched, and more or less clothed with 

 silky close pressed hairs. Leaves alternate, on channeled hairy foot- 

 stalks, from half an inch to an inch long, leaflets on the lower ones 

 sometimes five, the upper three ovate wedge-shaped, deeply serrated 

 dark green above, paler beneath, and almost smooth, or more or less 

 clothed with close pressed hairs, especially on the mid-rib and pro- 

 minent veins. Stipules simple, linear lanceolate, or one or two 



