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TORMENT IL L A officinalis.
Common Torment'll.
ICOSANDRIA Polygynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. in 8 fegments. Petals 4. Seeds
roundiffi, naked, wrinkled, affixed to a fmall dry
receptacle.
Spec. Char. Stem afcending, branched. Leaves
feffile.
S yn. Tormentilla officinalis. Sm. FI. Brit. <$2.
With. 476. Curt. Lnnd.fafc. 5 . t. 33.
T. eredta. Linn. Sj>. PI. 716. Hudf. 22$. Hull. 112.
Relh. 198. JVoodv. Med. Rot. t. 9.
Tormentilla. Raii Syn. 257.
Potentilla Tormentilla. Sibth. 162. Abbot. 114. •
C OM M O N in barren paftures, efpecially on heaths among
lin g and other fmall fhrubs, w h ich are befpangled with its
little bright blofloms in June and July.
T h e root is remarkably large and woody, endued with an
eminent degree o f aftringency, whence it has been lon g ago
admitted into the catalogue o f officinal plants. Stems weak,
flenderand wiry, generally fupporting themfelves upon the furrounding
plants, often procumbent, branched, round, leafy,
clothed with fhort foft ere6t hairs. Leaves feffile or nearly fo,
ternate, deeply ferrated, accompanied by a pair o f deeply divided
fhpulae. Flowers on long capillary folitary ftalks, placed
oppolite to the leaves, or rather in the forks o f the branches.
Segments o f the calyx ovate, alternately fmaller, hairy. Petals
inverfely heart-ffiaped, y e llow . Germens hairy. Seeds few,
rugged. DO
Mifs Johnes obferved one plant at Hafod in w h ich all the
flowers were double. W e never heard o f another inftance o f
th e kind, either in this genus or Potentilla.
Some flow'ers are occafionally found with 5 petals and 10 fegm
ents o f the c a ly x ; y e t th is happens fo rarely, and the two
fpecies o f Tormentilla accord fo well in habit, that we are not
convinced o f the propriety o f confidering them as Potentilla.
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