376 xlviii. rosacea (oliver). [Potentilla. 



6. POTENTILLA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, i. 620. 



Flowers usually 5-merous. Calyx-tube short, lobes erect or spread- 

 ing-, alternating* with as many bracteoles of an epicalyx. Petals ob- 

 cordate to oblanceolate. Stamens indefinite. Carpels indefinite inserted 

 upon a small dry receptacle. Achenes sessile, pericarp crustaceous. — 

 Herbs (or shrubs). Leaves digitately or pinnately 3-5-co -foliolate ; 

 leaflets usually incised or serrate. Stipules adnate below to the petiole. 

 Flowers pedicellat3 in corymbose cymes or solitary and axillary or leaf- 

 opposed, yellow in tropical African species. 



A large genus of the colder and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, rare 

 southwards. None of the following is peculiar to Africa. 



Erect or ascending. Leaves pinnate. Flowers in terminal 



corymbs 1. P. pensylvanica, var. 



Creeping. Leaves digitate. Peduncles solitary, axillary . 2. P. reptans. 

 Diffuse. Leaves pinnately 5-3-foliolate. Peduncles solitary, 



leaf-opposed 3. P. supina. 



1. P. pensylvanica, Linn. (var. strigosa) ; Lehm. Potent. 58. Silky 

 or tomentose herb with erect or ascending branches, from a few inches 

 to a foot or more in height. Radical leaves imparipinnate, usually 

 4-6-jugate, upper shortly petiolate or at length sessile with fewer 

 leaflets ; stipules entire or incised; leaflets from narrow-oblanceolate 

 to obovate, pinnatifid or pinnately incised, teeth obtuse. Flowers few 

 or many in terminal corymbose cymes. Bracts of epicalyx oblong 

 about equalling the broader calyx-lobes. Petals yellow obovate equal- 

 ling the calyx. — For copious synonymy see Lehmann, as cited. 



Nile Land. Abyssinia, Schimper {fide Lehmann.) 



A cosmopolitan species, of which, however, I have not seen Tropical African spe- 

 cimens. 



2. P. reptans, Linn. ; DC. Prod. ii. 574. Herb, with long, slender, 

 prostrate, glabrous, or thinly pilose branches rooting at the nodes. 

 Leaves digitate, usually 5-foliolate on long or short more or less pilose 

 petioles ; stipules oblong or ovate, usually entire. Leaflets subsessile, 

 oblanceolate or obovate-oblong, obtuse, crenate-serrate, excepting at 

 the cuneate base. Peduncles slender, axillary, solitary, exceeding the 

 leaf. Bracteoles of epicalyx elliptical equalling the calyx-lobes. Petals 

 yellow, obcordate, exceeding the calyx. — P. abyssinica, Rich. Fl.. Abyss, 

 i. 257 (a form with glabrous achenes and toothed stipules, according to 

 Lehmann, Potent. 185). 



Nile Land Abyssinia, Schimper! and others. 

 Common through Europe and temperate Asia. 



3. P. supina, Linn. ; DC. Prod. ii. 580. A difluse decumbent 

 herb, from a few inches to a foot or more in height, branching from 

 the base, usually more or less pilose. Lower leaves pinnately 5-folio- 

 late, upper 3-foliolate with shorter petioles ; stipules linear-oblong to 

 ovate entire. Leaflets from oblanceolate to obovate or (in radical 

 leaves) sometimes nearly ovate, obtuse, incise-serrate. Peduncles leaf- 



