SILVER-WEED. 



Potentilla anserina. Rose Family. 



" Herbaceous, tufted, spreading by slender runners one to three feet 

 long." Leaves. Pinnately divided into seven to twenty-five oblong, sharply 

 toothed leaflets which are silvery and silky below. Flowers. Bright yel- 

 low, on slender, erect, solitary flower- stalks. Calyx. Five-cleft, with 

 bracts between each tooth, thus appearing ten-cleft. Corolla. Of five 

 broadly oval or obovate petals. Stamens and pistils. Numerous. 



These bright, pretty flowers, occasionally mistaken for butter- 

 cups by the unobservant passer-by, are found throughout the 

 summer in wet marshes and along river banks from New Jersey 

 northward. For these golden-flowered plants the name " golden- 

 weed " would seem more appropriate than " silver-weed." It is 

 only when we turn over the leaves and note the downy under- 

 sides of the leaflets that we can reconcile ourselves to the estab- 

 lished title 



SHRUBBY CINQUEFOIL. FIVE FINGER. 



Potentilla fruticosa. Rose Family. 



Stem. Erect; shrubby; one to four feet high. Leaves. Divided into 

 five to seven narrow leaflets. Flowers. Yellow; resembling those of the 

 common cinquefoil, but larger. 



Of all the cinquefoils perhaps this one most truly merits the 

 title five finger. Certainly its slender leaflets are much more 

 finger-like than those of the common cinquefoil. It is not a 

 common plant in most localities, but is very abundant among 

 the Berkshire Hills, where it takes entire possession of otherwise 

 barren fields and roadsides; its peculiarly bluish-green foliage 

 and bright yellow flowers (looking like buttercups growing on a 

 shrub) arresting one's attention throughout the entire summer 

 and occasionally late into the autumn. 



14* 



