130 ROSACEZ. [Potentilla. 
1. P. anserina, Linn. Sp. Plant. 495.— Rootstock tufted, 
giving off long creeping runners rooting at the nodes. Leaves 
all radical, numerous, 2-6in. long, unequally pinnate, green and 
glabrous or slightly silky above, white with appressed silvery 
tomentum beneath ; leaflets numerous, 4—1 in. long, oblong or obo- 
vate or rounded, alternate ones often minute, deeply and sharply 
toothed or incised. Peduncles from the rootstock or rooting nodes, 
2-6 in. long, 1-flowered. Flowers 4-lin. diam., yellow. Calyx 
silky and villous ; lobes lanceolate or oblong; bracteoles lobed and 
cut. Petals obovate. Achenes glabrous or nearly so; receptacle 
villous.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 54; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 54; Kirk, 
Students’ Fil. 131. 
Var. b, anserinoides.—Leaflets smaller, +-4in. long, sessile or petioled.— 
P. anserinoides, Raoul, Choix, 28. 
NortH anp SoutH IsLAnps, CHATHAM ISLANDS: Common in moist 
places from the Auckland Isthmus southwards, ascending to nearly 3000 ft. 
Silver-weed. December—January. 
The typical form of the species is almost cosmopolitan; the var. anser- 
anoides, which is often difficult to distinguish from it, is said to be endemic. It 
is much the most plentiful state in New Zealand. 
4. ACAGNA, Linn. 
Silky or glabrous perennial herbs; stems erect at the tips, de- 
cumbent or creeping at the base, or altogether prostrate. Leaves 
alternate, unequally pinnate; leaflets toothed or incised; stipules 
sheathing at the base, adnate to the petiole. Flowers hermaphro- 
dite or unisexual, small, crowded in a terminal globose head, or in 
an interrupted spike. Calyx-tube persistent, obconic or turbinate 
or campanulate, constricted at the mouth, terete or angled, naked 
or at length armed with simple or barbed spines; lobes 3-7, 
valvate, persistent or deciduous. Petals wanting. Stamens 1-10, 
very rarely more. Carpels 1-2, wholly immersed in the calyx-tube ; 
style subterminal, short, exserted, dilated into a fimbriate or plu- 
mose stigma; ovule solitary, pendulous. Achenes solitary or rarely 
2, enclosed in the hardened calyx, which is usually armed with 
subulate spines or bristles. Pericarp bony or membranous. 
Species about 35, widely spread in the temperate regions of the Southern 
Hemisphere, but most plentiful in Chili and Peru. One of the New Zealand 
species is found in Australia and Tasmania, and another in Fuegia and the 
Falkland Jslands ; the remainder are all endemic. 
A. Calyx-tube not compressed, 4-angled, usually with a stout spine at each 
angle, rarely spineless. 
* Calyx-tube longer than broad. 
Usually silky. Heads large, #-1} in. ; spines long, red- 
purple. Achene narrowed at both ends 5c .. Ll. A. nove-zealan- 
Usually silky. Heads 4-$in. Achenes broadest near the die. 
base, narrowed upwards ne Be Bt .. 2. A. sangwisorbe. 
Usually glabrous; leaves often glaucous. Heads 4-?in. 
Achenes narrowed at both ends 3. A. adscendens. 
