COMMON CREEPING CINQUEEOIL. 



Potentilla reptans. 



Class IcosANDRiA. 0)'der Polygtnia. Nat. Ord. Rosacea. 

 Rose Tribe. 



It would be difficult to discover the remedial 

 properties once believed to belong to the pretty 

 flowers which are included in this genus, and 

 which procured for it its scientific name. Po- 

 tential we cannot deem them ; for, saving some 

 slight power in stopping the effusion of blood 

 from a wound, which a few possess, no service 

 is done by them to modern generations. Enough 

 however it is for the lover of wild flowers, that 

 they are beautiful, that they deck the waysides 

 where he loves to wander, and have power to 

 awaken pleasant thoughts and old memories 

 of green fields and clear streams and waving 

 boughs, and the blue sky bending over all. 

 Of the eleven native species of Cinquefoil, 

 that represented here is the most frequent. 

 Its stems, taking root at the joints, creep 

 over meadows, pastures, and hedge-banks, 

 bearing the soft velvety yellow flowers and a 

 great profusion of leaves from June till 

 August ; and long before the flowers appear, 

 before the hedgebank has put forth a single 

 blossom, save the daisy and the chickweed, 



