302 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [VoLuME 22 
I. Tormentillae. Plants perennial with a more or less prostrate or spreading stem, often 
rooting at the nodes. Leaves digitately 3-5-foliolate. Flowers middle-sized, borne on long 
solitary axillary pedicels. Petals 4 or 5, obcordate, yellow, surpassing the sepals by about 
one half. Stamens 16-20, with rather short filaments. Pistils numerous; styles slender, 
filiform. 
1. Potentilla procumbens Sibth. Fl. Oxon. 162. 1794. 
Tormentilla reptans L. Sp. Pl. 500. 1753. Not P. replansL,. 1753. 
Poientilla nemoralis Nestler, Monog, Potent. 65. 1816. 
Potentilla Tormentilla nemoralis Setinge, in DC. Prodr. 2: 574. 1825. 
Poteniilla Tormentilia procumbens Wender. F1. Hass. 160. 1846. 
Stems several from a perennial root, prostrate and flagelliform, often rooting at the 
nodes, glabrate or sparingly strigose; stipules narrowly lanceolate and mostly entire; 
basal leaves digitately 5- (sometimes 3-) foliolate; petioles 3-8 cm. long, sparingly stri- 
gose; leaflets obovate-cuneate, sparingly appressed-hairy on both sides or glabrate in age, 
especially above, toothed above the middle; stem-leaves ternate, with shorter petioles, some- 
times almost sessile, and with narrow leaflets; bractlets, sepals, and petals generally only 
4; bractlets and sepals lanceolate, subequal, 4-6 mm. long; petals broadly obcordate, 5-6 
mm. long; stamens about 16. 
TYPE LOCALITY: England. : 
DISTRIBUTION : Nearly the whole of Europe; also in Labrador and Nova Scotia; introduced 
in California. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Lehm. Monog. Potent. p/. 27; Dietr. Fl. Bor. 3: pl. 172; Fl. Dan. fi. 1819 ; 
Sturm, Deuts, Fl. 92: f/.2,; Engl. Bot. p/. 864; Britt. & Brown, Ill. Fl. f. 2236. 
2. Potentilla reptans L. Sp. Pl. 499. 1753. 
Fragaria reptans Crantz, Inst.2: 179. 1766. 
Dynamidium reptans Fourr. Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon II. 16: 371. 1868. 
Stems from a perennial root, slender, prostrate, slightly strigose or glabrate, often 
rooting at the nodes; stipules oblong-lanceolate, mostly entire; leaves digitately 5-foliolate ; 
petioles 3-10 cm. long, strigose; leaflets 1-3 cm. long, cuneate to oblanceolate, crenate or 
dentate, equally appressed-pubescent on both sides or in age glabrate, acute at the base, 
obtuse or rounded at the apex; bractlets ovate or elliptic, 5-10 mm. long, usually much 
exceeding the ovate sepals; petals 5, obcordate, 6-10 mm. long, yellow; stamens about 20. 
TYPE LOCALITY : Europe. 
DISTRIBUTION : Europe and northern Asia ; introduced in the eastern United States, mostly 
as a ballast plant; Bermuda. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Dietr. Fl. Bor. 3: J. 171; Hayne, Arzn. Gew. 4: £1.32; Sturm, Deuts. Fl. 
91: pl. 12; Engl. Bot. p/. 862; Fl. Dan. pl, 1164; Schrank, Fl. Monac. £1. 366. 
3. Potentilla simplex Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 303. 1803. 
Potentilla canadensis simplex T. & G. Fl. N. Am. 1: 443. 1840. 
Callionia simplex Greene, Leaflets 1: 238. 1906. 
Perennial, with a short roostock; stem slender, first erect, soon decumbent, 4-10 dm. 
long, appressed-pubescent; basal leaves digitately 5-foliolate; petioles 5-8 cm. long, 
appressed-pubescent; leaflets 2-6 cm. long, oblanceolate or oblong-oblanceolate, rarely 
obovate, coarsely toothed except the lower one fourth or one third, rather dark-green, gla- 
brous or nearly so above, appressed-silky especially on the veins beneath, usually acute at 
both ends; stem-leaves similar but short-petioled and always narrow; stipules lanceolate, 
1-1.5 cm. long, acuminate, entire or toothed; peduncles 3.5 cm. long, appressed-pubescent ; 
bractlets linear-lanceolate, 4-5 mm. long, equaling or slightly exceeding the similar but 
slightly broader sepals; petals broadly obcordate, 5-6 mm. long; stamens 20-25; styles 
slender, filiform. 
TYPE LOCALITY: Canada. 
DISTRIBUTION: Open woods and among grass, Nova Scotia to Minnesota, Missouri, and the 
mountains of Alabama and North Carolina. 
ILLUSTRATION : Nestler, Monog. Potent. p/. 9, 7. 2. 
