424 ICOSx\NDRIA— POLYGYNIA. Potentilla. 



joints. Leaves opposite, in pairs from each joint, on longish, 

 ascending, hairy footstalks, with a pair of small, linear, acute, 

 membranous, combined stipulas at the base of each, accompanied 

 by two opposite, 3-lobed or undivided, entire, leafy bracteas. 

 Leaflets 5, strongly serrated in their upper half, rough or hairy 

 about the edges. Flowers large, bright yellow, on long, simple, 

 naked, rather hairy, axillary, solitary stalks, taller than the 

 leaves. Cal. most hairy at the base ; outer segments ovate, 

 about as long as the inner, but more leafy. Recept. hairy. 



1 have not seen the variety /3,but it should seem to owe its smaller 

 stature to a dry or barren situation. 



The bark of the root is astringent, and hence this plant has found 

 a place in the Pharmacopoeia ; but it is now out of use, there 

 being many more efficacious medicines of the same kind. 



* * * Leaves ternate. 



10. P. tridentata. Three- toothed Cinquefoil. 



Leaflets three, wedge-shaped; smooth above; hairy be- 

 neath ; with about three terminal teeth. Stem panicled, 

 erect. Seeds even. 



P. tridentata. Poland, in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. \.v.2.2\6.L 9.ed. 2. 

 V. 3.279. Sm. Tr. of L.Soc.v.lO. 343. Engl. Bot.v. 34. t.23S9. 

 Comp. 80. Hook. Scot. 1 63. Willd. Sp. PL t;. 2. 1 1 10, excl the 

 syn. of Retzius and Fl. Dan. Nestl. Potent. 66, excl. the syn. 

 also of Sibbald, Scot. III. which is certainly Sibbaldia procumbens. 



On the mountains of Scotland. 



On a mountain called Werron, and some other hills in Angus- 

 shire, to the westward. Mr. G. Don. 



Perennial. May, June. 



Root creeping, woody, of a reddish brown. Stems several, herba- 

 ceous, 3 or 4 inches high, round, purplish, hairy, slightly leafy j 

 somewhat corymbose at the top, bearing 3 or 4 elegant white 

 flowers. Leaves all ternate ; dark green above ; paler and 

 clothed with close hairs beneath j each leajlet an inch long, 

 rather unequally toothed at the summit, otherwise entire : the 

 radical leaves largest, on channelled footstalks, exceeding their 

 own length. Lower stipulas undivided ; those of the stem- 

 leaves cut, Cal. liairy, purplish, with equal and uniform seg- 

 ments. Pet. obovate, undivided. Recept. and germens hairy. 

 Seeds ovate, turgid, even and naked, except a tuft of hairs about 

 the top. 



American specimens, gathered by my valued friend Mr. Francis 

 Boott, on the W^hite Mountains of New Hampshire, have 4 or 

 5 teeth to some of their leajlets, but agree otherwise exactly 

 with those from Scotland. P. retusa, FL Dan. t. 799, bears 

 densely hairy leaves, and yellow flowers ; and has as little affinity 



