1909]  Fernald,— Representatives of Potentilla Anserina 5 
be expected from a single package of seed planted in different corners 
of a garden. ‘The leaflets of А. argentea are said to be obovate, while 
those of А. Anserina are described as oblong, oblanceolate, or obovate. 
A sheet of the St. John Valley plant with the leaflets conspicuously 
silvery-silky above and labeled by its collector Potentilla Anserina, var. 
concolor is in the Gray Herbarium, but in spite of its leaves being 
“silvery on both sides" it was relabeled by Dr. Rydberg in 1908 “ Ar- 
gentina Anserina (L.) Rydb." Other specimens in the Gray Herba- 
rium marked by Dr. Rydberg as his A. argentea have the leaflets of 
the most typical oblong outline. As to the persistence of the silvery- 
sericeous pubescence on the upper surfaces of the leaflets, this ecologi- 
cal character is very marked in extreme plants, but in other less 
pronounced colonies some of the leaves are sericeous above, while 
others are quite green and glabrous. Such a specimen in the Gray 
Herbarium collected by Engelmann on the Laramie River shows this 
inconstancy of the pubescence; nevertheless it was marked without 
question by Dr. Rydberg as “уаг. concolor" (prior to his raising that 
variety to specific rank as A. argentea). At best, then, A. argentea is 
to be treated as an ecological variant of Potentilla Anserina, character- 
ized by the silvery-sericeous pubescence which normally covers both 
sides of the leaves. This rather pronounced extreme of P. Anserina 
has long been called var. concolor Seringe, although the name was 
earlier assigned to it by Wallroth;? but Wolf draws attention to the 
fact that, prior to the publication of var. concolor by Wallroth, the 
plant had been described by Hayne as P. Anserina, “8. sericea foliis 
utrinque sericeis." ? The plant, then, which is abundant in the 
Northwest and extends in less pronounced form eastward to the St. 
John River, Maine, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, should be called 
Potentilla Anserina, var. sericea Hayne. 
Of the other plants designated by Wolf under his first division none 
(except var. vulgaris which is typical P. Anserina) is known in America. 
` Var. nuda seems to be strictly European; var. hirsuta is known only 
from Asia; and var. maoria (P. anserinoides Raoul; P. Anserina, 
var. anserinoides Hook. f.), which has stronger claims to specific rank 
than are recognized by Wolf,* is a unique plant of the New Zealand 
region. 
1 Ser. in DC. Prodr. іі, 582 (1825). 
2 Wallr. Sched, Crit. i. 236 (1822). 
3 Hayne, Arzneigew, iv. 31 (1816) according to Wolf, 1. c. 672, 673. 
4 P. anserinoides Raoul, besides having petiolulate leaflets, differs from Р. Anserina 
in its comparatively thin laterally compressed achenes which are not dorsally grooved, 
