ROSACE.E. 1 10 



Plowcring-stcms at length many feet long, rooting at tlic joints, 

 and Ibrnung separate plants by tlie decay of the intermediate por- 

 tions. Leaves on stalks 2 to -l inehes long, in small tufts at each 

 node, as well as from the crown of the rootstock ; leaflets 1 to 3 

 inches long, varying from oblanceolate to obovate, serrated often 

 nearly to ithe base. Peduncles usually longer than the leaves, 

 riowers I to 1 inch across, bright yellow. 



This plant closely resembles some of the forms of P. prociunbens, 

 and still more strikingly large examples of P. mixta, but the stems 

 are more constantly rooting, not at all branched, the leaves with 

 longer stalks, leaflets with a more rounded outline, with finer and 

 less acute scrratures, the flowers larger, the calyx-segments more 

 nearly equal, the stipules broader than the entire ones of the above- 

 mentioned forms, and the achenes more distinctly tuberculated. 



Creeping Cinqne/oil. 



French, Quuite/euille. Geiinan, Kriechender Gcinserich. 



Tliis plant is as abundant as the Tormentil, and possesses the same qualities. It 

 las been applied to similar purposes. It appears to have been the officinal jilant of 

 the ancients, and is the ■KtiTufvXkov of Theophrastiis (ix. 19), and of Dioscorides (iv. 

 42). Pliny mentions it as Quinquefolium (25, 9, 27, 10). On account of its asti-in- 

 gency, it was frequently administered in agues. Turner says, " Dioscorides sayeth, but 

 methynk that it smelleth of superstition, that in a quartayu the lives of four stalks 

 ought to be taken, in a tertian the lives of three, and in a quotidian the lives of one 

 stalk." We sui)pose our author must mean the leaves, which are undoubtedly astringent. 



SPECIES VII.— POTEN TILL A ANSERINA. Linn. 

 Plate CCCCXXXIIL 



Rootstock slender. Lateral stems or runners elongated, pro- 

 cumbent, rooting at the nodes, simple. Leaves all similar, pinnate, 

 with 6 to 10 pair of lateral leaflets ; leaflets oblong-elliptical or 

 oblong-lanceolate, deeply inciso-sen-ate or pinnatifid, silky and 

 silvery-white on both sides or only beneath. Stipules membranous, 

 with the free portion small, ovate, in those of the runners herba- 

 ceous, incised. Flowers solitary, on long peduncles from the nodes 

 of the stem, pentamerous. The 5 outer calyx-segments narrower 

 than the inner, but nearly as long. Petals much longer than the 

 calyx, roundish-obovate, slightly notched. Receptacle hairy. 

 Carpels oval, glabrous, and smooth. 



In damp meadows, pastures, and ditch-banks, also by road- 

 sides, and waste places overflowed in winter. Very common, and 

 generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring and 

 Summer. 



