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Garden Avens

Potentilla alpestris.

UNDER the genus Geum a garden avens should certainly be ranked, but this, though very nearly allied, is not strictly an avens, but a cinquefoil, and its botanical name is Potentilla alpestris, otherwise the orange alpine cinquefoil, occasionally registered as Potentilla salisburgensis. It is also known as the mountain cinquefoil, and may be looked for hopefully on mountains in the north of England and North Wales, and on the Breadalbane and Clova mountains in Scotland. Where it occurs there will usually also be found the smaller spring cinquefoil, Potentilla verna, a very variable plant, which is often so like this P. alpestris that by many botanists the two are considered as forms of one and the same species. They are proper plants for the garden, and more especially for the rockery, needing always a moist soil and a sunny situation. The indented petals, the acute segments of the calyx--which sometimes exceed the length of the petals--the five-divided root-leaves, and three-divided stem-leaves, are signs by which this pretty plant may be known, and of which P. verna may be regarded as a small edition. Another near relation is Potentilla anserina, or goose-grass, a most beautiful plant, that geese have the good sense to appreciate, for they eat it, as the books say, "with avidity." The roots of this potentilla have been eaten as bread in times of scarcity in Northern Europe, and in places where the plant grows with vigour they are worth cooking as a table vegetable. As a garden plant Potentilla anserina has considerable merit; its silvery leaves are beautiful, and the yellow flowers are peculiar in texture, and their colour singularly pure. Potentilla splendens and P. gracilis closely resemble P. alpestris. Having thus stumbled into the midst of the potentillas, we shall embrace the opportunity to recommend P. pyrenaica, a fine plant, bearing golden flowers; P. nitida, a silvery-leaved plant with extremely pretty rose-coloured flowers; and P. calabrica, also silvery-leaved with yellow flowers. But the glory of this family is P. atrosanguinea, the blood-red cinquefoil, that the florists have toyed with until they have secured many showy varieties with scarlet, crimson, orange, and purple-coloured flowers of the most brilliant character, and all of them adapted for growing in the common border. The common avens, or Herb-Bennet, of the English woods, Geum urbanum, although not good enough for the garden, bears a near resemblance to the plant before us. At certain times it is decidedly pretty, but its petals fall so soon that, unless we see it in a certain state of freshness, which lasts but a short time, we fail to find the attractions which appear to have satisfied the plant-collectors of a former age. Its seeds are usually more conspicuous than its flowers, in consequence of the awns that bristle around the tiny ball. What it lacks in beauty it makes amends for in sanctity, for the Herb-Bennet, or Benedicta, was a favourite subject with sculptors and painters engaged in church decoration. Its importance arose out of the belief, as stated in "Ortis Sanitatis," that "where the root is in the house the devil can do nothing, and flies from it; wherefore it is blessed above all other herbs." Naturally, this came to be one of the amulet plants, that protected its wearer against "venomous beastes." The legend of St. Benedict sets forth that a wicked monk offered the saint a glass of poisoned wine for the purpose of destroying him. But the saint blessed the wine, and the poison, being a sort of devil, flew out of it with such force that the glass was shivered to pieces. Those who cannot refer to "Ortis Sanitatis," which is a scarce old book, may have at hand Mrs. Jameson's "Monastic Orders," wherein will be found the story of St. Benedict. It is singular that in the arrangement of the rosaceous order that prevails, the geums and potentillas come between the brambles and the roses, being separated from the spiraeas, to which, in general conformation, they are so nearly allied. Not far removed is a plant that bears a strong likeness to a potentilla, both in its divided leaves and yellow flowers. This is the agrimony, a woodland plant of considerable interest, and not without beauty, insomuch that if it chances to make an appearance in the garden one has not the courage to pull it out. This also was a plant of renown for its virtues, and is now sought as an ingredient for herb-tea. The problem for the young botanist is to establish to his own perfect satisfaction its relation to the roses, and then to trace out the several connecting links, and the signs that separate them.

The white cinquefoil (P. alba) and the creeping cinquefoil (P. reptans) may be added to the list of desiderata for the rockery; but, as remarked above, the florists' section of P. atrosanguinea are those that will contribute most forcibly to the glory of the garden, for they are among the very best of border plants. A selection of the most showy should include the following:--Aurora plena, double orange; Dr. Andry, orange and scarlet; Coccinea, crimson; Hopwoodiana, white and pink; Insignis, yellow; Louis Van Houtte, crimson; Russelliana, scarlet; and Sudbury Gem, crimson. They are so cheap, and make such a brilliant show, that a special compartment may be devoted to them advantageously, in which case a larger collection would be required than those named above.