186 Ft ELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



deeply serrated, and densely covered beneath (and sometimes also 

 above) with soft, silky hairs. 



Two of the Cinquefoils are very common by roadsides. These 

 are the Hoary Cinquefoil [Potentilla argeniea), and the Creeping 

 Cinquefoil {Potentilla reptans). The first of these is a partially 

 prostrate plant, with stem from six to eighteen inches long ; and 

 digitate leaves with five, wedge-shaped leaflets. The leaflets are 

 rendered white beneath by woolly hairs that lie close against the 

 surface, and theu- edges are curled backwards. The flowers, which 

 bloom in June and July, are yellow, small, and clustered. 



The Creeping Cinquefoil has a slender stem that creeps on the 

 ground and forms new roots at the nodes. Its leaves are digitate 

 and long-stalked, with five obovate, serrate, hauy leaflets. The 

 flowers are yellow, solitary, nearly an inch in diameter, with 

 five sepals and five petals. 



On banks we frequently meet with the Agrimonj^ [Agrimonia 

 Ewpatoria), a slender plant, from one to two feet higli, covered with 

 soft hairs, and bearing long, tapering, spikelike racemes of small, 

 scattered, yellow flowers dm'ing June and July. This i)lant may 

 be readily identified by means of our illustration. 



One of the Willow Herbs — the Broad Smooth-leaved Willow Herb 

 {Epilobium 7nontanum) — is common on roadside banks, flowering 

 during June and July. Its stems are slender, downy, and generally 

 unbranched ; and the leaves are opposite, stalked (the lower ones 

 almost stalkless), ovate, acute, with serrate edges, and smooth 

 except along the margins and the principal veins, which are more 

 or less downy. The plant grows to a height of one or two feet, and 

 bears small, pale-jiurple flowers which droop when in the bud. 

 It belongs to the order Onagracea> ; and, like the others of its genus, 

 has four sepals, four petals, eight stamens, and a long inferior ovary 

 which splits into four valves, setting free a large number of little, 

 tufted seeds. 



The order Crassulacece contains a number of low, succulent 

 ])lants, with small, regular, starlike flowei's. Some of them are 

 well known as Stonecrops and House-leeks. Those of the Stonecrop 

 group usually have cymes of flowers with perianth leaves in whorls 

 of five, and stamens in two whorls. 



One member of tliis grou]) — the Orpine or Livelong (Sedum 

 Tele.pJiium) — is not uncommonly found on shady wayside banks, 

 especially near villages and on the outsku'ts of towns, where 

 it is probably an escai^e from gardens. Its leaves are large, 



