738 POTENTILLA. LcLASs xii. ORDER ni. 



numerous, with awl-shaped filaments, and roundish anthers, of two 

 cells. Fruit a large roundish ovate spongy receptacle, thickly studded 

 over with smooth compressed purple coloured carpels, notched on the 

 under side for the insertion of the style. 



Habitat. — Marshes and spongy bogs ; frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



GENUS XIV. POTENTIL'LA. Cingue-foil 



Nat. Ord. Rosa'ce^. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx eight or ten cleft, the four or five outer alternate 

 segments smaller. Petals four or five. Carpels numerous, small, 

 inserted into a small dry receptacle. — Name from Potens, 

 powerful; in allusion to the qualities attributed to some of the 

 species. 



1. Petals five. 

 * Leaves pinnate. 

 1. P. frutico'sa, Linn. (Fig. 836.) Shruhhy Cinque-foil. Stem 

 shrubby ; leaves pinnate ; leaflets mostly five, oblong lanceolate, 

 entire; stipules membranous, lanceolate; 'receptacle very hairy. 



English Botany, t. 88. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 417.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 207. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 96. 



Root strong, fibrous. IShruh much divided, bushy, from two to four 

 feet high, round, with hard close grained wood, clothed with a brown 

 cuticle, which falls ofi" in long thin scales. Leaves numerous, pinnate. 

 Footstalks channeled above, hairy, accompanied at the base with a pair 

 of thin membranous lanceolate stipules, smooth and branched, with 

 prominent veins, leaflets five to seven, oblong, lanceolate, the margins 

 somewhat revolute, dark green above, paler, and finely reticulated with 

 veins on the under side, and more or less abundantly clothed, espe- 

 cially beneath, with white shining silky hairs, the three terminal 

 leaflets united at the base, and decurient. Floivers in terminal small 

 dichotomous panicles, large bright yellow. Calyx spreading in flower, 

 closed in fruit, the outer segments small, linear lanceolate, the larger 

 ovate lanceolate, sometimes cloven, thickly clothed at the base, as well 

 as the shortish pedicles, with white silky hairs. Petals roundish, with 

 a short claw. Stamens numerous, with linear filaments, and ovate 

 tawny coloured anthers, of two cells. Receptacle small, hard, dry, 

 thickly clothed with white shining bristly hairs. Pericarps seldom 

 perfected, oblique, ovate, scattered over with hairs, and surrounded at 

 the base with a ring of them. 



Habitat. — Bare. Rocks and shady places; Middleton Teesdale, 

 Yorkshire ; Rock Forest, County of Clare ; near Headford, County of 

 Gal way, Ireland. 



Shrub ; flowering in June. 



