Silverweed is a plant that is related to the genus of Pentaphylloides. See Pentaphylloides.

* its root is blackish, astringent, sometimes simple, sometimes fibrous. Its leaves are compound, similar to those of agrimonies, composed of several large lobes, obtuse and deeply indented toward the edges, interspersed with smaller lobes. Its leaves are green on top and adorned underneath with fine white hairs. Single flowers sprout at the base of each leaf adorning the small stem by their appendices. They are borne on long hairy peduncles and composed of five yellow petals. Their calyx is divided into five individual pointed parts, in which there are five petals. These contain several anthers with tips of the same color. The pistil becomes a spherical top, three lines across, covered with many small round seeds, yellow and similar to those of the poppy. This plant is commonly found in humid places, along the side of a road or riverbanks, with runners like a strawberry plant. Its root, its leaves, and its seeds are used in medicine.

Freshly distilled in a water bath, a clear, tasteless, and odorless substance is obtained, which increases in acidity during distillation. What remains in the alembic, if further distilled in a retort, gives: a reddish liquor either acidic, astringent in taste, or basic and ammoniacal; a reddish-brown, ammoniacal liquor which smells of burnt organic matter and is filled with a volatile ammoniacal salt; a volatile, ammoniacal, salt compound; and an oil with the consistency of butter. After direct exposure to a flame for thirteen hours, the black solid remaining in the retort becomes black ashes, from which a non-volatile basic salt was drawn off by percolation.

The plant has a salty, and harsh taste of grass. Its sap reddens litmus paper, from which it is clear that the sap contains an ammoniacal salt composed in part of alumina and sulfate, in a thick oil. The plant is perceived to be refreshing, astringent, desiccant, repercussive, and fortifying. It is classified as an astringent plant useful in healing wounds, and in fact stops all sorts of hemorrhages. It is prescribed effectively for the coughing of blood, blood loss, and in treating hemorrhoids. It is attributed the virtue of alleviating diarrhea and bleeding.