THE SILVERWEED. 



Potentilla anserina. Nat. Ord., Rosacea. 



I ROM the beauty of its leaves and the 

 large size of its flowers, the silverweed 

 is sufficiently attractive and conspicuous 

 to be familiar to most lovers of 

 plants. The name silverweed is 

 an especially appropriate one, as 

 the foliage is so thickly clothed 

 X with a silky white down or felting of soft 

 hair that the general effect has the greyish 

 white appearance that is noticeable in 

 frosted silver, and the plant is for the 

 same reason called by some of the older 

 writers the argentina, from the Latin word 

 argentum, silver. The scientific name of the 

 plant is Potentilla anserina, the first or generic 

 name being derived from the Latin adjective 

 potens, powerful, in allusion to the medicinal pro- 



* perties of some of the species forming the genus, 



* while the second or specific name, anserina, is from 

 the Latin anserinns, that that pertains to a goose. We are 

 quite unable to explain why siich a specific title should have 

 been affixed to the plant, possibly it may be because geese 

 are fond of it, though on this point we can only venture 

 on a surmise; possibly because it is flowering about the 



