ROSE TRIBE 229 



* * * Leaves quimitc or ternafe. Flowers white. 



10. White Cinquefoil {P. alba). — Stem weak, ascending ; root-leaves 

 quinate, upper ones ternate ; leaflets oblong, with converging serratures, silky 

 beneath. Plant perennial. This Cinquefoil is said by Hudson to have been 

 found in Wales, but is otherwise unknown as a British flower, and its being 

 so is doubted by our best botanists. 



11. Three-toothed Cinquefoil (P. tridentdta). — Stem woody, creeping 

 at the base; leaves ternate; leaflets oblong and wedge-shaped, 3-toothed 

 at the extremity, smooth above, hairy beneath. This, which is a North 

 American species, is a very doubtful native of Britain. Its only claim to be 

 such rests on the authority of Don, who recorded it as growing on Werron 

 Hill, and East rocks, Loch Brandy, Clova. 



12. Strawberry -leaved Cinquefoil (P. fragaridsfrum). — Leaves 

 ternate ; leaflets roundish, inversely egg-shaped, serrated, silky on both sides ; 

 stems procumbent ; petals as long as the calyx. Plant perennial. Have our 

 readers ever set forth, as we have often done, to search under the hedges for 

 a wild nosegay amid the chill gusts of early spring ? How the winds raved 

 among the branches, sweeping down the long flexil^le boughs of the willows, 

 swaying those of the pensile birch to and fro, and bearing from the young 

 oak many a brown leaf which had hung through the winter on its branches ! 

 How brightly the sunbeam of March was reflected by the glossy leaf of ivy 

 or holly ; while beneath their shelter the silver daisy boldly expanded, and 

 a primrose-bud, half hidden among its wrinkled leaves, peeped forth ; and 

 the speedwell, or winter-weed, bore its tiny flowers of blue, or the golden 

 dandelion or glossy celandine contrasted with the snowy wreath on the 

 blackthorn. Hidden close among the bright green mosses some purple 

 violet-bud was securely sheltered, and fungi of deep crimson, or pale yellow, 

 or ivory whiteness, upreared their heads. The scarlet peziza, like a ruby 

 cup, was seated on the withered bough ; the cup-moss grew in grey clusters, 

 and the peacock fungus, so like the rayed plumes of the bird after which it 

 is called, seemed emerging from every crevice of the fallen tree. There, too, 

 the white flowers of the Strawberry-leaved Cinquefoil lay in abundance on 

 every sunny hedge, and all, save the botanist, would believe that these early 

 blossoms belonged to the true Strawberry, and only needed the suns of 

 summer to turn them into the glowing fruits. Both leaf and flower are 

 almost exactly like those of the woodland Strawberry ; the silvery hue of 

 the young leaves, and even the strongly-marked veins of the more developed 

 foliage, being also seen here. But the plant is, as our fathers called it, only 

 the Barren Strawberry : and marked diff"erences from the fruitful plant exist 

 in the prostrate stems, the smaller flowers, and notched petals of the Cinque- 

 foil. This plant is common throughout England on woods and banks, some- 

 times in mild seasons flowering even as early as January, very soon after the 

 snow has melted from the bank. It continues in blossom till May. It was 

 formerly placed in the genus Fragaria with the Strawberry. 



6. SiBBALDiA (Sihhdldia). 

 Procumbent Sibbaldia (^S*. procumhens). — Leaves ternate ; leaflets 

 wedge-shaped, Avith 3 teeth at the end ; flowers corymbose ; stem procum- 



