376 XLVI[I. ROSACEH (OLIVER). [ Potentilla. 
6. POTENTILLA, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. i. 620. 
Flowers usually 5-merous. Calyx-tube short, lobes erect or i ee 
ing, alternating with as many bracteoles of an epicalyx. Petals ob- 
cordate to oblanceolate. Stamens indefinite. Carpels indefinite inserted 
= a small dry receptacle. Achenes sessile, pericarp crustaceous.— 
erbs (or shrubs). Fats digitately or pinnately 3—5—co -foliolate ; 
leaflets usually incised or serrate. Stipules adnate below to the petiole. 
Flowers pedicellate in corymbose cymes or solitary and axillary or leaf- 
opposed, yellow in tropical African species. 
A large genus of the colder and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, rare 
southwards. None of the following is peculiar to Africa. 
Erect or ascending. Leaves piunate. Flowers in terminal 
WO eG wt te... LB pene 
Creeping. Leaves digitate. Peduncles solitary, axillary . 2. P. reptans. 
Diffuse. Leaves pinnately 5-3-foliolate. Peduncles solitary, 
leaf-opposed OU Grr a One Ge Aen oes 3. P. supina. 
1. P. pensylvanica, Linn. (var. strigosa) ; Lehm. Potent. 58. Silky 
or tomentose herb with erect or ascending branches, from a few inches 
to a foot or more in height. Radical leaves imparipinnate, usually 
4—6-jugate, upper shortly petiolate or at length sessile with fewer 
leaflets; stipules entire or incised; leaflets from narrow-oblanceolate 
to obovate, pinnatifid or pinnately incised, teeth obtuse. Flowers few 
or many in terminal corymbose cymes. Bracts of epicalyx oblong 
about equalling the broader calyx-lobes. Petals yellow obovate equal- 
ling the calyx.—For copious synonymy see Lehmann, as cited. 
Nile Land. Abyssinia, Schimper (fide Lehmann.) 
A cosmopolitan species, of which, however, I have not seen Tropical African spe- 
cimens. 
2. P. reptans, Linn. ; DC. Prod. ii. 574. Herb, with long, slender, 
pees glabrous, or thinly pilose branches rooting at the nodes. 
eaves digitate, usually 5-foliolate on long or short more or less pilose 
petioles; stipules oblong or ovate, usually entire. Leaflets subsessile, 
oblanceolate or obovate-oblong, obtuse, crenate-serrate, excepting at 
the cuneate base. Peduncles slender, axillary, solitary, exceeding the 
leaf. Bracteoles of epicalyx elliptical equalling the calyx-lobes. Petals 
yellow, obcordate, exceeding the calyx.—P. abyssinica, Rich. F1. Abyss. 
1, 257 (a form with glabrous achenes and toothed stipules, according to 
Lehmann, Potent. 185). 
Wile Land Abyssinia, Schimper! and others. 
Common through Europe and temperate Asia. 
3. P. supina, Linn.; DC. Prod. ii. 580. A diffuse decumbent 
herb, from a few inches to a foot or more in height, branching from 
the base, usually more or less pilose. Lower leaves pinnately 5-folio- 
late, upper 3-foliolate with shorter petioles ; stipules linear-oblong to 
ovate entire. Leaflets from oblanceolate to obovate or (in vatical 
leaves) sometimes nearly ovate, obtuse, incise-serrate. Peduncles leaf- 
