•"lbili. FI. Oxon. p.162. — Abbot’s FI. Bedf. p. 1 1 4. — Grev. FI. Filin, p. 116. — 
Find). Syn. p 97. — Bab. FI. Hath. p. 15. — Macr. Man. Brit. Bot. pp. 68 &. 69. — 
Putentilla officinalis, Giay’s Mat. Arr. v. ii. p. 583. — FI. Devon, pp. £8 St 172. 
Localities. — In bairen pastures, moors, and heathy places ; frequent. 
Perennial. — Flowers in June, July, and August. 
Root thick and woody, varying both in size and shape, brown 
on the outside, reddish within. Stems many, from 6 inches to a 
foot or more long, weak, slender, and wiry, more or less branched, 
often procumbent, though usually supporting themselves on neigh- 
bouring bushes. Leaves ternate, nearly sessile, somewhat hairy; 
dark green above, paler beneath ; leaflets oblong, pointed, deeply 
and regularly serrated. Slipulas rather large, deeply cleft into 
two, three, or more lobes, and making the leaves appear quinate at 
first sight. Flowers small, on long, slender, hairy, axillary and 
terminal, pedicels. Calyx ribbed, hairy. Petals usually 4, of a 
fine yellow colour, with a faint tinge of orange at the base, their 
claws very short. Stamens about 16 or 18. Pistils from 8 to 16. 
Germens smooth. Style thread-shaped, inserted into the side of the 
germen above the base. Seeds few, wrinkled in the upper part. 
Receptacle small, thickly clothed with fine transparent hairs about 
the length of the germens. — Sometimes the calyx varies with ten 
segments, and the corolla with five petals, when it becomes difficult 
to distinguish it from Potentilla, but the number 4, and its mul- 
tiples, usually predominates in the flowers of this genus. 
Sir J. E. Smith informs us, that “ the late Miss Johnes, of Uafod, 
gathered the Tormentil in Cardiganshire, with double blossoms, 
like little yellow roses.” 
The roots of this species rank with the strongest vegetable astringents, and as 
such have a place in the modern practice of physic. They are used in the He- 
brides and Orkneys to tan leather, for which purpose they are said to be superior 
even to oak-bark ; one pound and a half of the roots being equal to seven pounds 
of ordinary tan. In Lapland its root is chewed along with the inner bark of the 
Alder, and the saliva thus impregnated is applied to leather, to dye it of a red 
colour. Thus their harness, reins, girdles, gloves, &c. are tanned. According 
to the observations of Linn/ecs. cows, goats, sheep, and swine, eat this plant ; 
but horses refuse it. — Bulleyn, in his “ Book of Simples,” asserts, on the au- 
thority of the Norfolk shepherds, that Tormentil in pastures prevents that very 
destructive disease, the rot in sheep. 
TO VEGETATION. 
" Painter of Landscapes ! Vegetation, hail ! 
Dearly I love thee in thy every hue ; 
“Whether thy pencil, in the mead and dale, 
Tinges the flowers with yellow, white, or blue, 
To deck thy emerald mantle ; or in groves 
Of thickest foliage waves the darkest green ; 
Or in Carnation, Hose, and Tulip, loves 
To make them each appear the garden’s queen : 
I court thee, too, where Furze and Heath-flowers grow 
In the rude forest, and the desart wild. 
And, oftentimes, to trace thy footsteps go 
To rocks and caves, where sunbeam seldom smiled ; 
For there the Moss and Liverwort can tell 
The searching magic of thy potent spell.” 
R. MILLHOUSE. 
