202 THE KOSE FAMILT. 



14. Watek Sepx-foil — {Comdrum palustre.) 

 On the plashy borders of ponds, and not merely fringing their edges, 

 like mints and willowherbs, but extending to where the water is ten 

 or fifteen inches deep, common. Fl. July. 



E. B. ii. Ill ; Baxter, iii. 197. 

 A very curious, elegant, ami interesting plant, the interior of the sepals, like 

 the petals, of a dark pui'plish-red ; the leaves glaucous, and formed of five or 

 seven large serrated leaflets ; and the fruit resembling a juiceless strawberry. 



15. Wild Strawberry — {Fragdria vesea.) 

 Hedgebanks, and in the diy parts of woods, abundant everywhere. 

 Fl. May, June. Fruit ripe in July. 



E. B. xxii. \bU ; Baxter, iv. 242. 

 The garden strawberry is the Fragaria eldtior. (E. B. xxxi. 2197.) Whether 

 distinct as a species from the vesca is more than doubtful, no diflerential charac- 

 ters being discoverable in it beyond the greater size, the fewer runners, and a 

 strong disposition to produce unisexual flowers. 



16. Little Mock Strawberry — [Potentilla Fragaridstrum.) 

 Everywhere on dry hedgebanks, the earliest of the thin-strewn 

 flowers of spring. Fl. February, March. 



Curtis, i. 175 ; E. B. xxv. 1785 (both as Fragdria sterilis). 

 This little plant is very commonly mistaken for the wild strawberry. But the 

 latter seldom blossoms before May, and has flowers twice or thrice as large, and 

 lifted, three or four together, on stalks as many inches high ; whereas those of 

 the mock strawberry crouch among the leaves. The strawberry is further dis- 

 tinguishable by the yellowish-green of its foUage, which in the other plant is 

 dark and somewhat sombre, and by having petals without the notch at the 

 extremity, usually observable in the Fragariistriim. By the older botanists 

 it was placed in the same genus as the strawberry, as indicated in the synonyme, 

 the absence of the succulent receptacle being expressed in the specific name 

 stirilii or ''barren." 



17. Silverweed — {Potentilla anserina.) 

 Roadsides, and in poor, dry, waste ground, often by heaps of cinders, 

 abundant everywhere. Occasionally upon hedgebanks, and then more 

 luxuriant. Fl. June, July. 



Curtis, i. 170; E. B. xii. 801. 

 One of the most charming of our native plants, whether in the silvery feathers 

 of its foliage, or in the bright golden lustre of its scented blossoms, which lie 

 close upon the ground (unless when the plant is drawn up by taller ones), and 

 bear a strong resemblance to buttercups. The petals expand only in clear 

 weather and in 'iunsliino : and in finlnnm tbo lonves Rssnnu' n fine yolinw tint. 



