Fragatia.'} LI. ROSACES. (J. D. Hooker.) 345 



4. F; Daltoniana, J. Gay in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 4. viii. 204; smaller, 

 slender/ hairy or nearly glabrous, runners filiform, leaflets petiolulate with few 

 teeth ? ffkxwfirs solitary, fruit elongate-ovoid or fusiform, calyx-lobes and bracte- 

 oles tootMd spreading in fruit. F. sikkimensis, Kurz in Journ. As. Soc. Seng. 

 1875, v ii. 206. 



SIKKIM HIMALAYA, alt. 10-15, 000 ft., J. J). H., Kurz, &c. 



A very distinct species, at once recognizable by its smaller proportions, petiolulate 

 leaflets with few teeth, toothed calyx-lobes, bracteoles, and curious fruit, which is 

 often nearly 1 in. by \ in. broad, of a bright scarlet but with little flavour. 



11. POTENTILLA, Linn. Cinquefoil. 



Perennial herbs, rarely shrubs. Leaves compound ; stipules adnate to the 

 petiole. Flowers white or yellow, rarely red, solitary or in corymbose cymes. 

 Calyx persistent, 5- rarely 4-bracteolate ; lobes as many, valvate in bud. Pe- 

 tals as many, sometimes narrow. Stamens many, rarely few and definite. Disk 

 annular or coating the calyx-tube. Carpels many, rarely 1 or few, on a small 

 dry receptacle ; style persistent or deciduous, ventral or terminal ; ovule 1, pen- 

 dulous. Achenes many, on a dry receptacle. DISTKIB. N. temp., Arctic, and 

 mountain regions, very few are found in the south ; species 120. 



The species of Potentilfa are very difficult of discrimination, being chiefly mountain 

 plants varying in habit and stature with elevation, much as Ranunculi do. I have no 

 doubt that several here regarded as peculiar, will prove forms of more western ones, 

 and those again of one wide spread European, Asiatic, and American plant. Lehman's 

 " Kevisio Potentillarum " is of little scientific value, and the 200 species it enumerates 

 are reducible by at least one-third. Boissier in his " Flora Orientalis " has done ex- 

 cellent work. The character of the calyx and petals are excessively variable, and 

 that of the terminal and ventral style is not so good as might be supposed, the outer 

 carpels often differing somewhat from the inner in this respect. Smooth and wrinkled 

 achenes are not always definite characters. I am inclined to think that the structure 

 of the stigma is useful as a guide to the affinities of the species, but I hesitate to 

 introduce it without a study of the whole genus. 



SECT. I. Sibbaldia. Stamens 4, 5 or 10. lowers often unisexual. 

 * Leaves simple. 



1. P. trullifolia, Hook.f.-, forming dense silky moss-like tufts, leaves 

 trowel-shaped or ^-orbicular tip truncate 3-fid, stamens 5, achenes many smooth, 

 styles short ventral. 



SIKKIM HIMALAYA; rocky places on the Tibet frontier, alt. 16-17,000 ft., J. D. H. 



Tufts matted, an inch high, soft, of densely packed short branches from a woody 

 slender rootstock. Leaves \ in., densely imbricated, flat, clothed on both surfaces 

 with long silky hairs, tip with 3 broadly triangular obtuse teeth; petiole short; 

 stipules very broad, membranous, with triangular acute free portions. Flowers 

 solitary, subsessile, in. diam. Calyx hemispheric, silky ; tube very short ; lobes 

 ovate, obtuse ; bracteoles much smaller, narrow, oblong, obtuse. Petals not seen. 

 Stamens, rudiments of 5 seen. Achenes about 10, on a villous receptacle, quite 

 smooth. 



** Leaves digit ately 3- or 5-foliolate. 



2. P. Sibbaldi, Haller f. in Ser. Mus. Helvet. i. 51 ; leaflets 3 obovate- 

 cuneate truncate 3-5-fid, flowers in branched cymes yellow 5-merous, achenes 

 smooth, style short ventral. P. procumbens, Clairv. Man. cFlferbor. en Suisse 



