ROSACEA. 149 
Flowering-stems at length many feet long, rooting at the joints, 
and forming separate plants by the decay of the intermediate por- 
tions. Leaves on stalks 2 to 4 inches long, in small tufts at each 
node, as well as from the crown of the rootstock; leaflets 1 to 3 
inches long, varying from oblanceolate to obovate, serrated often 
nearly to the base. Peduncles usually longer than the leaves. 
Flowers ? to 1 inch across, bright yellow. 
This plant closely resembles some of the forms of P. procumbens, 
and still more strikingly large examples of P. mixta, but the stems 
are more constantly rooting, not at all branched, the leaves with 
longer stalks, leaflets with a more rounded outline, with finer and 
less acute serratures, the flowers larger, the calyx-segments more 
nearly equal, the stipules broader than the entire ones of the above- 
mentioned forms, and the achenes more distinctly tuberculated. 
Creeping Cinquefoil. 
French, Quintefewille. German, Kriechender Giinserich. 
This plant is as abundant as the Tormentil, and possesses the same qualities. It 
has been applied to similar purposes. It appears to have been the officinal plant of 
the ancients, and is the zeyragvddov of Theophrastus (ix. 19), and of Dioscorides (iv. 
42). Pliny mentions it as Quinquefolium (25, 9, 27,10). On account of its astrin- 
gency, it was frequently administered in agues. Turner says, “ Dioscorides sayeth, but 
methynk that it smelleth of superstition, that in a quartayn the lives of four stalks 
ought to be taken, in a tertian the lives of three, and in a quotidian the lives of one 
stalk.” We suppose our author must mean the leaves, which are undoubtedly astringent. 
SPECIES VILI—POTENTILLA ANSERINA. Zinn. 
PuatE CCCCXXXITI. 
Rootstock slender. Lateral stems or runners elongated, pro- 
cumbent, rooting at the nodes, simple. Leaves all similar, pinnate, 
with 6 to 10 pair of lateral leaflets; leaflets oblong-elliptical or 
oblong-lanceolate, deeply inciso-serrate or pinnatifid, silky and 
silvery-white on both sides or only beneath. Stipules membranous, 
with the free portion small, ovate, in those of the runners herba- 
ceous, incised. Flowers solitary, on long peduncles from the nodes 
of the stem, pentamerous. The 5 outer calyx-segments narrower 
than the inner, but nearly as long. Petals much longer than the 
calyx, roundish-obovate, slightly notched. Receptacle hairy. 
Carpels oval, glabrous, and smooth. 
In damp meadows, pastures, and ditch-banks, also by road- 
sides, and waste places overflowed in winter. Very common, and 
generally distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring and 
Summer. 
