**Tormentil**, in botany: A genus of plants belonging to the class of *icofondria*, and order of *polycynia*; and in the natural system ranging under the 35th order, *Senteio*. The calyx is obovate; the petals are four; the seeds round, naked, and affixed to a juiceless receptacle. There are two species; the erecta and repens, both indigenous.

1. The erecta, common tormentil, or septfoil, has a stalk somewhat erect, and fleshy leaves. The roots consist of thick tubercles, an inch or more in diameter, replete with a red juice of an astringent quality. They are used in most of the Western Isles, and in the Orkneys, for tanning of leather; in which intention they are proved by late experiments to be superior even to the oak-bark. They are first of all boiled in water, and the leather is afterwards steeped in the liquor. In the islands of Tirey and Col the inhabitants have destroyed so much ground by digging them up, that they have lately been prohibited the use of them. A decoction of these roots in milk is also frequently administered by the inhabitants of the same islands in diarrhoeas and dysenteries, with good success; but perhaps it would be most proper not to give it in dysenteries till the morbid matter be first evacuated. A spirituous extract of the plant stands recommended in the sea-fever, to strengthen the gums and fallen the teeth. Linnaeus informs us, that the Laplanders paint their leather of a red colour with the juice of the roots.

2. The repens, or creeping tormentil, has reddish stalks, slender and creeping. The leaves are sharply serrated, grow on short footstalks, and are five-lobed. The flowers are numerous and yellow, blossom in July, and are frequent in woods and barren pastures.