Notes on Rosaceae — III 
Per AXEL RYDBERG 
POTENTILLA 
If we were trying to trace the origin of the name Potentilla, we 
should probably find that the name belonged to Potentilla Anserina 
L., or Argentina Anserina of the North American Flora. There is 
no doubt but that very species was the plant usually referred to 
by the name Potentilla among the pre-Linnaean botanists, although 
other species, as for instance P. reptans L., sometimes were meant. 
As our nomenclature begins with Linnaeus, it concerns us very 
little, however, what his predecessors named plants. The question 
that most concerns us is, What application did Linnaeus make 
of the name Potentilla? We know that Linnaeus often adopted 
names from earlier authors and used them in an entirely different 
meaning. 
As stated before, our nomenclature begins with Linnaeus, and 
we have agreed to adopt the Species Plantarum of 1753 as the 
starting point of generic as well as of specific names. As the 
Species Plantarum does not give any characterization of the genera, 
and as there are found only a few exceptional cases in which types 
are assigned, it is necessary to turn to other works of Linnaeus, in 
order to find his real conception of a certain genus at that time. 
The best book for this purpose is the fifth edition of his Genera 
Plantarum, published in the following year. In this we find on 
page 219 that the genus no. 559, Potentilla, was not adopted from 
anybody else. In other words, whatever the origin of the name 
Potentilla might have been, the concept of the genus originated 
with Linnaeus himself.* He based it on Quinquefolium Tourn. 
and Pentaphylloides Tourn. As Quinquefolium is the first of 
these two synonyms and the only one accompanied by an illus- 
tration, also cited by Linnaeus, we can not help but regard the 
*Linnaeus nad the same concept even before the Oe of the Species 
Plantarum, for his genus Potentilla remained unchanged in his nera Plantarum 
rom the first pie ei to the seventeenth, the last one ates during his lifetime. 
tTourn. Inst. pl. 153. 
379 
