RYDBERG: NoTES ON ROSACEAE 383 
RECTAE 
This group contains two closely related introduced species. 
Dr. Wolf regards them as varieties of one. 
HEPTAPHYLLAE 
This group consists of a single species, which Dr. Wolf includes 
in his Grex Ranunculoides, a mixture of plants of diverse habits, 
from the groups Heptaphyllae, Aureae, Subviscosae, Subcoriaceae 
and Nuttallianae. In my monograph I had followed S. Watson 
in calling the species Potentilla heptaphylla Mill. It is not closely 
related to that species. For some years I had known my mistake 
but did not correct it until I did so in the North American Flora. 
Dr. Wolf had also noticed it and proposed a new name for the 
species. As his name is a few months older, the species has to 
bear the following name and synonymy. 
POTENTILLA PALMERI Th. Wolf. Bibl. Bot. 16: 513. 1908 
P. heptaphylla S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 17: 353; hyponym. 
1882.—Rydb. Mem. Dep. Bot. Columbia Univ. 2: 62. 1898. 
Not P. heptaphylla Mill. 1768. 
P. leptophylla Rydb. N. Am. Fl. 22: 310. N 1908. 
NUTTALLIANAE 
Coulter and Nelson, in the New Manual of Botany of the Cen- 
tral Rocky Mountains, have reduced Potentilla brunnescens Rydb. 
to a doubtful synonym of P. pectinisecta, to which it has indeed 
very little relationship. Its nearest relative is without doubt 
P. Nuttallii. Dr. Wolf, who is even more conservative as a rule 
than the authors of the New Manual, admits it as a distinct species, 
but changes the name to P. brunescens, for what reason I do not 
know. As far as I know, both brunneus and brunnescens are 
usually spelled with two n’s. 
Potentilla Townsendii is placed in the Ranunculoides by Dr. 
Wolf and placed between P. fragiformis and P. Palmeri; but it 
is not related at all to either of the two. It has no close relative 
as far as I know, but must be placed in the group in which I placed 
it in the North American Flora, unless it is to be regarded as a 
group by itself. 
