MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 3 



built. The gathered facts could from this time on be arranged in a system, however 

 tentative and artificial, and be available to the scientist whenever needed. 



I shall not enter into the history of the individual species at all,, as this can easily 

 be traced from the quite extensive synonymy and references given under each. I shall, 

 however, briefly refer to the history of the genera. 



Of the plants belonging to the tribe, a few were known to Linnaeus. In his " Gen- 

 era Plantarum" they are described under the five genera, Fragaria, Potentilla, Tormen- 

 tilla, Sibbaldia and Comarum. 



Adanson^ adopted Heister's name Pancovia for Comarum and Tournefort's Quinque- 

 folium for the digitate-leaved Potentillae, reserving Potentilla for the pinnate-leaved 

 ones. He inconsistently included Tormentilla, which has digitate leaves, in Potentilla, 

 instead of in Quinquefolium. Since many species have digitate as well as pinnate leaves, 

 the division of Potentilla into two genera on this basis is unwarranted. Adanson was 

 followed by Gaertner,^ who changed, however, Quinquefolium to Pentaphyllum. This 

 was undoubtedly done inadvertently, as he cites Tournefort, giving the page on which 

 Quinquefolium appears. Necker' added another genus, quite as unwarranted, for the 

 trifoliolate species, viz., Tridophyllum. 



As far as the inclusion of Tormentilla in Potentilla ( in whatever sense taken ) is con- 

 cerned, it may be said that it is the only proper course, and has been so regarded by 

 nearly all botanists. 



Scopoli* included not only Tormentilla, but also Comarum and Fragaria in Potentilla. 

 This view was also held by Spenner,* who proposed the name Dadylophyllum for the 

 group. It may be remarked here that the only logical treatment is to include also Fra- 

 garia, if P. palustris, P. Anserina, P. fruticosa, etc., are regarded as species of Potentilla. 



Lamarck" takes four species from Potentilla, for which he proposes a new genus 

 Argentina with the following species : A. vulgaris { P. Anserina L.), A. supina, A. rupes- 

 tris and A. rubra ( Comarum palustre L.). All except A. supina, I think, should be 

 removed from Potentilla for reasons given below. As P. Anserina is the first species 

 given under Argentina, and this is an old pre-Linnaean name for that species, used in 

 the mediaeval Latin and by Ray, and others, I shall take it up as a generic name for P. 

 Anserina and its allies. 



Lamarck, as well as Linnaeus, included in Fragaria some species, generally referred 

 to Potentilla. Of these La Peyr' made a genus Fraga, which was changed to Fragarias- 



1772. 6 Fl. Fran?. 3 : 118. 1778. 



' Hist. Abr. PI. Pyr. 287. 1813.* 



