192 THE EOSE FAMILY. 



cross-breeds are produced, gives reason to suspect that the whole genus, in- 

 cluding even the Chilian Pine Strawberry, may prove to consist but of one 

 species. 



VII. POTENTXi:.. POTENTILLA. 



Herbs, with a perennial, tufted stock, and occasionally a creeping root- 

 stock or runners. Flowering stems usually annual, often very short, rarely 

 perennial or partially shrubby. Leaves of 3 or more digitate or pinnate, 

 distinct segments or leaflets. Peduncles 1-flowered, solitary or forming a 

 dichotomous cyme at the ends of the stem. Calyx free, double, that is, of 

 twice as many divisions as there are petals, the alternate ones outside the 

 others and usually smaller. Petals 5 or rarely 4. Stamens numerous. 

 Carpels numerous, small, 1-seeded and seed-like, crowded on a receptacle 

 which enlarges but slightly, and rarely becomes spongy, never succulent. 



The species are numerous, extending over the whole of the northern hemi- 

 sphere without the tropics, especially in Europe and Asia, penetrating into 

 the Arctic regions, and descending along the mountain-ranges of America 

 to its southern extremity. The genus, already extended by the admission 

 of Tormentilla and Comarum, would, perhaps, be still better defined if the 

 Straivberry and Sibbaldia were likewise included. It would then comprise 

 all Rosacea with a double calyx, numerous, distinct, 1-seeded carpels, not 

 enclosed in its tube, and the styles not transformed into long, feathery beaks 

 or awns. 



Leaves digitately divided. 



Mowers white 1. Strawberry -leaved P. 



Flowers yellow. 



Petals 4 in all, or nearly all, the flowers 3. Tormentil P. 



Petals 5 in all, or nearly all, the flowers. 



Leaves very white underneath 4. Hoary P. 



Leaves green on both sides. 



Stems creeping, and rooting at the nodes 2. Creepiiig P. 



Stems short and tufted or procumbent, but not 



rooting 5. Spring P. 



Leaves pinnately divided. 



Flowers dingy-purple 9. Marsh P. 



Flowers white 8. Boek P. 



Flowers yellow. 



Stem much branched, often shrubby . Leaflets few, oblong 6. Shrubby P. 

 Stem creeping. Leaflets numerous, silky underneath . . 7. Goose P. 



Two red-flowered. East Indian species, with digitate leaves, P. nepa- 

 lensis and P. atropurjpurea, and several of their hybrids, are frequently to 

 be met with in our gardens. 



1. Strawberry-leaved Potentil. Potentilla Pragariastrum, Ehrh. 



{Fragaria sterilis, Eng. Bot. t. 1785.) 

 Resembles the Strawberry in its short, tufted stems, silky hairs, 3 leaflets 

 regularly toothed almost all round, and white flowers ; but the receptacle i 

 does not swell or become succulent as the fruit ripens. The stem itself is [ 

 also often shortly creeping, either uuder or above ground, and the flowering! 

 branches are less erect than in the Strawberry ; the petals usually smaller, 

 although variable, sometimes narrow and scarcely so long as the calyx,! 

 sometimes nearly as large as in the common wild Strawberry. 



On banks, dry pastures, and in open woods, in western and centrall 



