ROSACEAE. 



117 



POTENTILLA. Cmquefoil. 

 (Family Rosaceae). 



Small scraggly shrubs or mostly 

 herbs: deciduous. Twigs slender, 

 subterete, with quickly exfoliat- 

 ing bark: pith small, roundish, 

 brown, rather spongy. Buds rel- 

 atively large, solitary, sessile, ob- 

 long, with about 4 somewhat stri- 

 ate exposed scales, the inner gray- 

 hairy when visible. Leaf-scars 

 much raised on a clasping 3- 

 nerved base bearing the persist- 

 ent stipules at top, (or in the 

 second at tip of the persistent 

 petiole), minute, round: bundle- 

 trace 1. 



The two woody cinquefoils con- 

 sidered here show interesting 

 morphological features. P. -fruti- 

 cosa t h e winter-characters of 

 which are described by Bosemann, 

 74, and Schneider, f. 71 forms 



ordinary winter buds, of large size for the plant; and these 

 stand in the axils of the persistent stipule-bearing leaf-bases, 

 at} top of which small abscission scars have been formed. 

 The buds of P. tridentata are to be compound with the hiber- 

 nacula or subterranean buds in which the growing tips of 

 many perennial herbs pass the winter. As in Nandina, dis- 

 articulation takes place at a distance above the point where 

 the stipules separate from the winged base of the petiole. 

 Low-bushy, internodes elongated. (Dasiphora). 



(1). P. fruticosa. 

 Stems very dwarf and tufted, covered by the leaf-bases. 



(2). P. tridentata. 



