302 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



Western Szech'uan: Mupin, thickets and rocky places, alt. 

 2600-4000 m., June, July and October 1908, October 1910 (Nos. 1213, 

 3175, 4629; shrub 1-1.5 m., flowers yellow); Tachien-lu, upland thick- 

 ets, alt. 3300-4000 m., July and November 1908 (No. ills'*; shrub 1 

 m. tall, flowers yellow) ; northeast of Tachien-lu, Tap'ao-shan, moor- 

 lands, alt. 4000-4600 m., July 7, 1908 (No. 3174; shrub 0.6-1 m. tall, 

 flowers golden) ; Wa-shan, cliffs, alt. 3500 m., July 1903 (Veitch Exped. 

 No. 3466; bush 0.6-1 m. tall, flowers yellow) ; without precise locality, 

 A. Henry (No. 8955). Chili : Weichang, 1909, W. Purdom (No. 127). 

 Yunnan : Lichiang range, alt. 3300-3600 m., August 1906, G. Forrest 

 (No. 2723). 



This is a common shrub on exposed rocky mountain slopes, above 2500 m. alti- 

 tude, in western Szech'uan; in Hupeh it is rather rare. In size of leaves and flowers 

 and in degrees of hairiness this plant is extremely variable. The Chinese speci- 

 mens quoted above differ from the typical form in the broader usually elliptic and 

 mucronate outer sepals shorter than the inner sepals, approaching in this respect 

 var. davurica Lehmann. 



Potentilla fruticosa, var. albicans Rehder & Wilson, n. var. 



A typo recedit foliis supra laxe adpresse villosis subtus sericeo- 

 tomentosis albicantibus, sepalis exterioribus ellipticis quam interiores 

 subaequilongis mucronatis. 



Western Szech'uan: Tachien-lu, alt. 3300-4000 m., November 

 1908 (No. 1213", in part; seeds only). Cultivated at Highland Park, 

 Rochester, N. Y.: Highland Park, September 14, 1915. E. H. Costich 

 (raised from seed of Wilson's No. 1213"), type. 



This variety is apparently near P. fruticosa, var. vulgaris Willdenow, from which 

 it differs chiefly in the white-tomentose under surface of the leaflets. The leaves 

 are 5-foliolate with generally elliptic-oblong leaflets, rounded and mucronate at the 

 apex, pubescent and dull grayish green above, white-tomentose beneath; the 

 flowers are bright yellow and about 2 cm. wide with eUiptic outer sepals about as 

 long as the inner ones. In fohage it much resembles P. fruticosa, var. Vilmoriniana 

 Bean, but that variety has creamy white flowers. 



The plants in cultivation were raised from seed collected under No. 1213", but 

 all the herbarium specimens of that number have glabrescent leaves. 



Potentilla fruticosa, var. rigida Wolf in Bihl. Bot. XVI. 57 (Monog. 

 Potent.) (1908). 



Potentilla rigida WaUich, Cat. No. 1009 (nomen nudum) (1828). — Lehmann, 

 Nov. Stirp. Pugil. III. 3 (1831); in Nov. Act. Acad. Leop.-Carol. XXIII. 

 Suppl. 19, t. 1 {Revis. Potent.) (1856). 



Western Szech'uan: near Monkong Ting, alt. 2300-3000 m., 

 June 1908 (No. 3173; shrub 0.6 m., flowers yellow). 



