ROSE TRIBE 227 



small yellow flowers grow several together, at the ends of the stems, in June 

 and July. 



5. Creeping Cinquefoil (P. rcpfans). — Stem slender, creeping, rooting 

 at the joints ; leaves quinate, stalked, their leaflets inversely egg-shaped, 

 tapering at the base, and bluntly serrated ; flower-stalks axillary, single- 

 flowered, longer than the leaf. Root perennial. Not one of the genus is 

 more common than this, for it groAvs on almost every way-side bank, or 

 creeps with slender stem along the meadow grass, or enlivens the side 

 of the dusty road. The yellow flower, of soft and velvet-like texture, 

 expands in June and July, and is often called in the covuitry Yellow Straw- 

 berry flower ; but, long ere flowers have begun to peep forth from their 

 winter covering, the fingered leaves of this Cinquefoil lie in wreaths on the 

 bank. Even in February we may see them almost fully unfolded, and 

 winding among the rounded leaves of the ground ivy, or the deep crimson 

 foliage of the Herb Robert. The name of FotentiUa, given on account of the 

 potential virtues which some of the species were supposed to possess, was 

 probably won by this and some nearly allied species ; for this is the medicinal 

 potentilla of the ancients, and was referred to by one of the oldest writers 

 on plants, Theophrastus. Though none of the genus is deleterious, yet they 

 are by no means possessed of active or potent properties. They are generally 

 more or less astringent and bitter, and this creeping species is still reputed 

 to be a febrifuge, and would doubtless be used as such by modern practi- 

 tioners but that more powerful drugs are now more easily obtained. The 

 writers on plants in Queen Elizabeth's time thought very highly of its 

 remedial effects. One of our herbalists, who describes it very accurately, 

 and calls it the Cinquefoil, or five-leaved grass, desires his readers to give 

 twenty grains of it either in white wine, or white-wine vinegar, "when," he 

 says, "you shall very seldom miss the cure of an ague, be it what ague 

 soever, in three fits, as I have proved to the admiration both of myself and 

 others : let no man despise it because it is plain and easy ; the ways of God 

 are all such." It was commended as an especial herb to be used in fevers 

 and inflammations, whether infectious or pestilential, and also for diseases 

 of the lungs. The distilled water of the leaves and roots seems to have been 

 a very favourite preparation, and the author adds : "If the hands be often 

 washed therein, and it be suffered every time to dry in of itself, without 

 wiping, it will in a short time help the palsy or shaking in them." Doubtless 

 the plant mingled with wine might have been beneficial in agues, but one 

 loses all one's reliance on these old prescriptions as we come to the conclusion 

 of the matter. "Some hold," he says, "that one leaf cures a quotidian, 

 three a tertian, and four a quartan ague, and a hundred to one if it be not 

 Dioscorides, for he is full of whimsies. The truth is, I never stood much 

 upon the number of the leaves, or whether I gave it in powder or decoction. 

 If Jupiter were strong, and the moon applying to him, and his aspect good at 

 the time of gathering, I never knew it miss the desired eftects." 



The form of the leaf gives its familiar name to the plant in many countries 

 besides our own. Thus the French term it Qaintefeuille ; the Germans, 

 Funffingerkraut ; the Dutch, Vyfvingerkruid ; the Italians, Cinquefoglio ; and 

 the Spaniards, Cinco en rama. 



29—2 



