44 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
There are other important groups or genera of this 
wonderful Rose family, some of which we must con- 
sider before we pass to another family. Some of the 
Potentillas we have been talking of 
exhibit a tendency to grow erectly, 
but most of these only succeed in 
maintaining their slender stems at 
an angle half-way between the erect 
and prone positions. One species, 
however (P. fruticosa), 1s really a 
shrub. The Herb Bennet or Wood 
Avens (Geum urbanum) has a creeping 
rootstock from which long stalked leaves 
spring direct, their blades broken up into 
three large, toothed leaflets and a number of variable 
smaller ones. The upright stems are sparingly clothed 
with smaller leaves, and it is evident that these stems 
are of a tougher more woody character than those of 
most Potentillas. The flowers are not very different 
from the yellow Potentillas, but if cut through vertically 
the receptacle will be found to be conical, somewhat 
after the manner of the Marsh Cinquefoils, but covered 
with carpels ending each in a long, slender style bent 
at the tip. The flowers produce honey, and the 
stigmas mature before the pollen is shed, so that 
there is every chance of cross-fertilisation. Now you 
may find this plant in abundance on the borders of 
woods and copses, and along hedgerows. It does not 
trust to chance for the dispersion of its seeds; it 
has developed an artful device to get them carried 
which may be said to be more sagacious than the 
production of a showy juicy receptacle as in the 
Strawberry. 
