740 POTENTILLA. fCLASS XII. ORDER III. 



silky common footstalk, with brown tbin sheathing cut dry mem- 

 branous stipules at the base. Leaflets in numerous oblong lanceolate 

 opposite pairs, deeply and acute, serrated, the intermediate ones small, 

 deeply cut, more or less clothed with white shining silky hairs, close 

 pressed. Flowers solitary, axillary, the peduncles round, smooth, or 

 silky, from one to two inches long, sometimes there are two flowers at 

 the extremity of the peduncle, but seldom more than one perfected. 

 Calyx silky, with the smaller segments often cut into awl-shaped teeth, 

 the larger ovate, acute. Petals yellow, roundish ovate, with a short 

 claw. Stamens with awl-shaped filaments, and rather large ovate 

 anthers, of two cells. Receptacle silky. Seeds seldom perfected. 



Habitat. — Moist meadows and road sides ; common. 



Perennial; flowering in June and July. 



This is a very common and very variable plant in the appearance of 

 its leaves and leaflets, from being very white and shining, from its 

 clothing of silky hairs, or green and almost free from them. The 

 roots have the flavour of parsnips, and being wholesome, they have 

 been used as food by country people ; they are much relished by hogs, as 

 may be observed from the avidity with which they seek after them on 

 the road sides and banks, and the leaves are a favourite food of geese, 

 hence the name of Goose-grass. 



** Leaves digitate. 



4. P. argen'tia, Linn. (Fig. 839.) Hoary Cinque-foil. Stem 

 ascending, or erect ; leaves quinate ; leaflets obovate, wedge-shaped, 

 more or less pinnalifidly cut with revolute margins, white and tomen- 

 tose beneath; stipules ovate, acuminate, entire, or toothed; flowers, 

 corymbose, numerous. 



English Botany t. 89. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 419. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 206. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 96. 



j3. Guntheriana, Serr. (Fig. 840.) Stem decumbent, paniculated, 

 and spreading from the middle ; leaflets obovate, wedge-shaped, deeply 

 cut beneath, slightly tomentcse. 



De Cand. Prod. 3. p. 577.— P. Guntheri, Pohl. tent. Fl. Bohem. v. 

 2. p. 185. — Koch. Flora GermaniciE et Helveticse, p. 214. — P. argentea 

 diffusa, Wallr. 



Root somewhat woody. Stems several, curved at the base, becoming 

 erect, or nearly so, from six to eighteen inches high, round, leafy, and 

 more or less thickly clothed with close soft woolliness, simple, and 

 terminating in a corymbose inflorescence, or branched from the middle 

 in a paniculated manner, the radical and lower leaves with long 

 slender woolly footstalks, the leaflets five, obovate, wedge-shaped, more 

 or less deeply cut into narrow lanceolate acute segments, which are 

 sometimes serrated, the margins rolled back, green, and nearly smooth 

 above, beneath more or less thickly clothed with white close soft 

 woolliness, the upper leaves sessile, and often with only three leaflets. 



