CXXIV.— THE COMMON AVENS, OR HERB BENNET. 
Geum urbaniim Linne. 
S ORDID with the dust of the road in the driest of hedge-banks, in the full 
glare of the sun, at the outskirts of the town, or holding its own amid a dense 
vegetation of brambles and ferns in some moist shady lane, or alone in the bare 
chalk rubble under the dense shadow of a yew-tree on the scarped slope of the 
downs, this species does not seem particular as to soil, shade, or moisture. It is, 
by far, the commonest British species of the genus Geum. 
Belonging to the Tribe Potentillece, this genus forms with Dryas the Sub-Tribe 
Dryadince, characterised by styles which elongate after the opening of the flower and 
by a solitary ascending ovule in each carpel. comprises some thirty-six species, 
natives of Temperate and cold regions in both hemispheres. The name Geum, which 
is used by Pliny, is derived from the Greek yewo, geuo, 1 give a relish, from 
the aromatic dove-like taste of the rhizomes. For the same reason these plants were 
known to the botanists of the Renaissance as Caryophyllala, which name has been 
literally translated in the German N elkenwurz, i.e. “ Clove-root.” The rhizomes 
are very astringent as well as aromatic, and thus served as both preservative and 
flavouring to beer and wine ; and such liquors were considered specially useful 
against dysentery, and also apparently against poison. It is related of St. Benedict 
that when a monk handed to him a cup of poisoned wine and he blessed it the cup 
broke in pieces ; and from this story this plant got the names of Herba Benedicii, 
our Herb Bennet, and the German Benedicten-kraut. These names were at an early date 
misunderstood, Herba Benedicii being taken for Herba benedida, “ Benedict’s herb ” 
for “ Blessed herb.” Thus the twelfth-century physician Matthaeus Platearius is 
quoted as writing : — 
“Where the root is in a house the devil can do nothing, and flies from it ; wherefore it is blessed above all other herbs, 
no venomous beast can hurt the carrier, or approach it when growing.” 
In the “ Ortus Sanitatis,” printed in 1491, in which this quotation occurs, the 
plant is called A nancia, the origin of the modern French name Avance and our Avens ; 
and most probably Dr. Prior is right in his suggestion that this name was the 
Greek evavTia, enantia, an antidote. 
The aerial stem in this species is round and softly hairy and rises erect to a 
height of from one to three feet, branching slightly above, and bearing a cymose 
succession of flowers. The radical leaves have long stalks and are lyrately and 
interruptedly pinnate, the large terminal leaflet being round, lobed, and crenate. 
The veins are prominent on the under surface. The cauline leaves are shortly 
stalked and often ternate, but vary considerably in their lobing ; and their large 
stipules are leaf-like, lobed, and toothed. 
The flowers are erect, on slender stalks, and but little more than half an inch 
in diameter. The epicalyx and calyx are green and become reflexed in the fruit 
