THE MARSH CINQUEFOIL — continued. 
The rhizome gives off fibrous roots and the ascending aerial stem, which rises 
to a height of a foot or more, is, as we have said, tinged with a reddish-brown. 
Its upper portion is slightly hairy and branched. The lower leaves are stalked, have 
from five to seven pinnately-arranged, sharply-serrated leaflets, and are downy and 
whitish or glaucous beneath. They have large membranous stipules attached to the 
petiole, often with cut margins. The upper cauline leaves are sub-sessile and ternate. 
The flowers are few together, in a loose cluster, on downy stalks ; and, being 
an inch or more in diameter, their lurid dark purplish hue, suggesting clotted blood, 
is certainly striking. The leaves of the epicalyx, or bracieoles, as some botanists call 
them, are smaller than the sepals, and these latter are prolonged into long points, 
whilst the pointed lanceolate petals are smaller even than the bracteoles. There is 
no perfume ; but the flower is protandrous. 
“When the flower opens,*’ writes the late Lord Avebury, “ the stamens erect themselves and open gradually. Some of 
the pollen falls on the stigmas, but has no effect, as they are not mature. When the anthers have dropped, the filaments of 
the stamens curve downwards towards the petals, while the styles, on the contrary, elongate and take their places.** 
We have often found this handsome plant growing actually in the water of 
shallow bog pools, associated with the grand blue of Gentiana Pneumonanthe Linn6, or 
the little Marsh St. John’s-wort {Hypericum elodes Linne) ; but we do not think its 
ecology is altogether clear, since it is recorded alike from the swamps on the 
limestone hills of the Pennine range, which may have alkaline or neutral water, and 
from association with the Bog Asphodel {Narthecium ossifragum Hudson), where the 
water is probably acid. The following summary, by Mr. W. M. Rankin, of a 
“ marginal association,” where the edge of the estuarine Foulshaw Moss in Lonsdale 
abuts on the adjacent slate hills, is typical : — 
“The extreme edge is occupied by an alder wood, in which the dominant tree (Alnus rotundifolia) is accompanied by 
sallow (Salix caprea and 5. cinerea)^ alder buckthorn (Rkamnus Frangula)^ mountain ash (Pyrus Aucuparia)^ yew (TaXus haccata)^ 
oak (Quercus seniliftora), juniper (Juniperus communis)^ and birch [Betula tomentosa). The floor of this wood is very swampy, 
with many pools, in which grow bog-bean [Menyanthes trifollata)^ marsh cinquefoil [Potentilla palustrts)^ the great stooled sedge 
{^Carex paniculatd)y and other species of Carex^ Phragmites n/ulgarisy and ferns {haitrea aristata^ L, sptnulosay Bhchnum Spicar.t). 
Gentiana Pneumonanthe^ Hottonia palustris and Oimunda regain also formerly occurred in this association, but they are now 
extinct.” 
In “Types of British Vegetation,” Mr. Rankin and others describe the 
occurrence of the Marsh Cinquefoil in other associations, such as the plashes and 
reed-swamps of the New Forest, with some of the above-mentioned associates, 
with Pedicularis and Utricularia : but the precise interpretation of the conditions is 
not yet known. 
