CINQUEFOIL, or Potentilla, L. a genus of plants, comprising thirty-five species, of which only eight are indigenous; the principal of these are: 1. The fruticosa, or shrubby cinquefoil, which is set with fine silvery hairs, has reddish stems, and yellow blossoms, that appear in the month of June: the flowers are conspicuous for their number and beauty.
This plant has been usefully employed on the Continent, in tanning calf-skins; and it is also eaten by cows, horses, goats, and sheep; but is refused by hogs.
2. The anserina, or wild tansey, or goose-grass. See Silver-weed.
3. The argentea, or hoary cinquefoil, which grows on meadows and pastures, in a gravelly soil, and flowers in June.—The whole may be used for tanning, and dyeing black colours; as it is not touched by cattle.—Bechstein.
4. The reptans, or common creeping cinquefoil, which grows in a moist, clayey soil of meadows, pastures, and by road-sides. It is perennial, and flowers from June to August.—A fine-grained calf-leather has, likewise, been prepared from this plant, on the Continent.—The red cortical part of the root is mildly astringent, and antiseptic: a decoction of it has been found an excellent gargle for loose teeth, and spongy gums.