40 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



two strongly-divergent types may be found almost any- 

 where, we may safely, in the present pages at least, regard 

 them as specifically distinct. In the tormentil the stem- 

 leaves are stalkless ; the flowers, though of the same colour, 

 are ordinarily much smaller than in the cinquefoil ; in the 

 latter plant, as we have seen, the parts of the blossom are 

 normally in fives, while in the tormentil the petals are but 

 four in number. The stems of the tormentil are much 

 more erect than those of the cinquefoil. The tormentil 

 root is so astringent in character, and contains so much 

 tannin, that it has been largely used in the place of oak- 

 bark in tanning, and decoctum tormentilla still figures as an 

 astringent lotion in the modern pharmacopoeia. Its root 

 also yields a red dye. The plant is a perennial, and flowers 

 from about the first or second week in May until late in 

 the autumn. Besides the tormentil, the cinquefoil, and 

 the silver- weed (Potentilla anserina) which we have 

 figured there are nine other species of Potentilla ; most of 

 these are, however, so rare or so local in their occurrence as 

 to be beyond the scope of our work. 



