This pretty plant is common everywhere. You will find it all summer by
the roadside, in meadows, and by the edge of the cornfields.
The flowers are bright golden yellow: they have five petals which open
out like a rose, and in the centre there is a ring of yellow stamens
with a knot of green seed-vessels among them.
In between each of these yellow petals you see a narrow green point
appearing. These are sepals, and if you look at the back of the flower
you find that the calyx is really a star made up of ten pointed green
sepals.
The flowers grow on long, slender stalks. Both the flower and the leaves
rise from what looks like another slender stalk creeping close to the
ground. The creeping stalk comes from a root which resembles a small
carrot. This root goes straight down into the ground, and it sends out
three long, stalk-like creepers which lie along the surface. Wherever a
bunch of leaves and flowers rises from the creeper, two or three little
white roots go down into the ground. These take firm hold of the earth
and help to keep the plant steady.
The leaves are beautiful. Each leaf is divided into five fingers, which
are cut round the edges like the teeth of a saw. They are dark green,
and have long, slender stalks like the flowers.