170 Dr. W. Seller on some Plants obtained 



marked in the descriptions of Stellaria scapigera. As the plant 

 in the Society^s herbarium was obtained also from the shores of 

 Davis' Straits, we may hope that opportunities will occur of ex- 

 amining the species under more favourable circumstances. 



RosACEiE. — Of the Rosacea, besides the Potentilla tormentilla, 

 there are several specimens of a Potentilla which deserves some 

 attention. These specimens are of the same species, though one 

 is much more branched than the others. The lower part of the 

 stem is covered with a dense brown mass, composed of the en- 

 larged stipules of the inferior leaves. In the midst of this cover- 

 ing the stem divides into several branches. These stems or 

 branches in all our specimens are one-flowered and few-leaved, 

 yet each at its base is covered with brown stipular sheaths arising 

 from itself. The radical or lowest leaves are on pretty long pe- 

 tioles arising in the mass of stipular sheaths. These petiolated 

 leaves are ternate, and each leaflet is crenate, having from five to 

 seven convex teeth nearly but not absolutely equal ; in the ter- 

 minal leaflet there are commonly seven such teeth. Both sur- 

 faces of the leaflets, particularly the lower, are covered with silky 

 hairs, and hairs of the same description copiously ciliat* their 

 margins. They are rather small, each leaflet being about the 

 third part of an inch long and less than a quarter of an inch 

 broad. The few leaves on the flower-bearing stems are also ter- 

 nate, but smaller and less perfectly developed, the terminal leaflet 

 having no more than three convex teeth ; these have no petiole, 

 but in lieu of it a pair of connate stipules. The flower-bearing 

 stems, as well as the petioles of the lower leaves, are hairy, the 

 hairs on the former being shorter. The calycine sepals are ovate, 

 blunt or subrotund, the five exterior rather smaller than the five 

 interior, the inner rather less round than the outer, subequal in 

 both rows ; both are hairy and fringed with hairs. The petals 

 are considerably longer than the sepals, large and broad, obcor- 

 date or emarginate. 



There are not a great many species of Potentilla hitherto de- 

 scribed with ternate leaves. Of these, the only species to which 

 our plant approaches are the P. nivea, Vahliana, emarginata and 

 nana. In some respects it agrees with each of these. The flowers 

 are too large for the P. nivea, and moreover it dififers in its whole 

 aspect from the P. nivea at least of the Alps. It agrees better 

 with the P. Vahliana, which is held to be the same as the P. 

 Jamesoniana from Greenland, described by Dr. Greville. The 

 leaves however in Dr. Greville's figure have hardly the same 

 aspect ; in Dr. Greville's plant the lateral leaflets are trifid, in 

 ours usually quinquefid; moreover Dr. Greville describes the 

 leaflets as gashed at the apices, those of our plant are crenate 



