354 LI. ROSACES. (J. D. Hooker.) \_Potentilla. 



gins recurved, flowers yellow |- in. diam. corymbose, achenes numerous minute, 

 style terminal. Lehm. Revis. Potentill. 34. P. breviscissa, B&rtoL Misc. Sot. 

 xxiv. 17, t. 5. 



KASHMIR and WESTERN TIBET, alt. 10-16,000 ft.; Niti Pass, KUMAON, alt. 

 16,300 ft,, Str. $ Wint. DISTRIB. Affghanistan to the Caucasus. Northern and Cen- 

 tral Europe and Asia from Lapland and the Pyrenees ; China ; temperate and Arctic 

 N. America. 



As variable in stature as P. sericea, and in other respects also. Eootstock short, 

 erect, with many crowns of leaves and stout or slender, suberect or prostrate or as- 

 cending stems. Leaves $-2 in. diam., normally with 5 subdigitate lobes, but often with 

 lobes more pinnately dispersed on the slender petiole which is sometimes 4 in. long ; 

 divisions of pinnules p- in. broad. Flowers 5^ in. diam., in close or open corymbose 

 cymes, or few, or solitary in reduced forms, subsessile or on long slender pedicels. 

 Calyx silky ; lobes ovate, acute ; bracteoles linear-oblong, obtuse. Petals orbicular- 

 obovate, retuse. Achents glabrous, exactly like those of P. sericea ; receptacle hairy. 

 A considerable number of species in different sections of Lehman's " Revision " are 

 referable to this species. P. altaica, Bunge is a state with leaflets reduced to three. 

 P. verticillaris, Steph., referred here by Ledebour, is according to our specimens 

 partly P. multifida and partly sericea. 



VAR. glabrata ; dwarf, rootstock stout, stem prostrate, leaves dense nearly gla- 

 brous, flowers small. 



VAR. minor, Ledeb. Fl. Boss. ii. 42 ; verv slender, leaflets pinnate cut into very 

 slender lobes. P. tenella, Turcz. West Tibet, Falconer. Affghanistan, Griffith. 



VAR. Saundersiana ; very small, leaves palmately 3-5-foliolate, leaflets - in. 

 deeply incised tomentose or silky beneath. P. Saundersiana, Eoyle III. 207, t. 41, 

 f. 1 ; Lehm. Eevis. Potentill. 113. Western Tibet, alt. 15-17,000 ft. Also in Siberia 

 and Arctic latitudes. Very small 3-foliolate specimens are perhaps undistinguishable 

 from P. nivea, L., and var. hololeuca of P. sericea may be referable here. Dwarf 

 forms of these three species are hardly distinguishable in a dry state. 



25. P. sericea, Linn. ; Boiss. Fl. Orient, ii. 709; white, densely silkily 

 tomentose, stems many, leaves oblong pinnate, leaflets 5-11 silky on both sur- 

 iaces, cut nearly to the base into linear subacute ascending lobes with recurved 

 margins, flowers yellow ^-f in. diam. corymbose, petals orbicular-obovate, 

 achenes many smooth, carpels glabrous, style terminal. Lehm. Revis. PotentU. 

 33. P. cinerascens, Bertol. Piant. Nuov. Asiat. 7, t. 63. P. soongarica, Bunge ; 

 Ledeb. Fl. Ross. ii. 42. 



WESTERN TIBET, and Tibetan region of the Western Alpine Himalaya, from 

 KASHMIR, alt. 9-17,000 ft. to KUMAON. DISTRIB. Affghanistan to the Caucasus and 

 Armenia. Soongaria, N. China, Temperate and Asiatic N. America. 



A very variable plant, diminishing in size with the increasing elevation from 

 18 in. to 3 in. ; covered more or less densely with soft shining silky hairs. Eootstock 

 very stout, perpendicular, with many heads. Leaves crowded, 1-6 in. long, rarely more 

 than 1 in. broad ; leaflets oblong, all cut nearly to the midrib, rarely only half way to 

 it, the terminal leaflets pedately disposed, the lateral opposite and alternate. Flow- 

 iring stems ascending, densely tomentose, corymbosely many-flowered in the larger 

 specimens, few or 1 -flowered in the smaller. Calyx-lobes triangular-ovate or lanceolate, 

 acute ; bracteoles narrowly oblong, obtuse. Achenes quite smooth. I can find no cha- 

 racter whereby to separate P. soongarica from the common Tibetan form of seri- 

 cea and it is difficult to retain hololeuca and polyschista as distinct forms, to which 

 may be added certain forms of P. pensyhanica, L. 



VAR. polyschista, Lehm. ; dwarf, densely tufted, leaflets 3-5 short, flowers smaller 

 alt. 15- 17, 000 ft. P. polyschista, Boiss. Flor. Orient, ii. 710. 



VAR. hololeuca, Boiss.; Fl. Orient, ii. 710 (sp.); dwarf, leaflets 3-5, ovate pin- 

 natifid to the middle, most densely white tomentose beneath, flowers few small. 

 Lehm. Eevis. Pot. 69, t. 27. Perhaps referable to P. multifida Pugha in Little Tibet, 



