264 PLANTS GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 



when we follow some stone wall to a place where we know a 

 spreading patch of f raises des bois, as the French call the wild 

 strawberries, is in bloom. The little plant is, in fact, often 

 called, although erroneously, wild strawberry. Perhaps we at- 

 tempt to carry it away, but it is indignant at such treatment 

 and its petals droop quickly after leaving their shady home. 



SHRUBBY CINQUEFOIL. {Plate CXXXVII.) 

 PotcJitllla fruticbsa. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Rose. Yellow. Scentless. Eastern states and westward. All summer. 



The flowers of this plant, although larger, are very similar in 

 arrangement to those of the common cinquefoil. It seems to 

 be the patriarch of the family and has from five to seven long, 

 narrow leaflets, which are more flattering in shape to the fingers 

 after which it was christened than those of the rest of the 

 genus. It also grows as high as four feet, and is very 

 shrubby. 



The plant is a good example of the theory that is now ac- 

 cepted, and the one through which Goethe appeared on the plat- 

 form of science. It is that of the morphology of the suddenly 

 arrested branch into the flower. The circular growth of the 

 leaves is very similar to that of the sepals and petals, and which 

 are in reality nothing but transformed leaves. The calyx has a 

 double row of five sepals, the outer one spreading and the inner 

 one bent to give some protection to the naked seeds. There 

 are also five petals. The stamens are then naturally in some 

 multiple of five. When the growth is very rapid it is some- 

 times the case that some of these parts are obliterated. 



Shrubby cinquefoil is most capricious of soil and locality, 

 and is said to circle the globe. In the eastern states it favours 

 low, moist meadows or even swamps, but chooses drier soil as 

 it travels westward, until in Michigan it flourishes in sandy soil. 

 To a classification according to soil its vagaries are not only 

 trying, but inexcusable. 



