MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 49 



§ 5. ARGENTEAE. 



21. Potentilla intermedia L. 



PotentiUa intermedia L. Mant. PL 76. 1767. 



Willd. Sp. PL 2: 1101 ; Poir. in Lam. Enc. Meth. 5: 590; Ait. Hort. Kew. Ed. 2, 3: 

 276; Persoon, Syn. PL 2: 54; Haller, Syn. Pot. 54; Ser. in DC. Prodr. 2: 577; Ledeb. 

 Fl. Ross. 2: 49; Lehm. Rev. Pot. 102; Don, Gard. Diet. 2 : 554; Dietrich, Syn. PI. 3: 

 182; Walp. Ann. 2: 493. 



Rydb. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 24:9; Britt. & Brown, 111. FL 2 : 210. 



PotentiUa digitata-flabellata A. Br. & Bouche, Ind. Sem. Hort. Ber. 1851 : 3. 1851. 



Lehm. Rev. Pot. 101. 1856. 



Illustrations: Lehm. Rev. Pot. jj/. 41; Britt. & Brown, 111. Fl. 2 : /. 1916. Plate 

 12, f. 1; dissection of flower, /. 2; pistil, /. 3; stamen, /. 4.; fruiting hypanthium and 

 calyx/. 5. 



Stem 4-7 dm. high, generally ascending, very leafy and much branched, green or 

 tinged with brown or purple, finely pubescent with sparse long hairs. Stipules ovate, 

 acute, mostly entire. Leaves green and finely hirsute on both sides and somewhat 

 tomentulose beneath the basal on petioles 1-2 dm. long, digitate, with 5 obovate leaflets 

 3-6 cm. long. Stem leaves quinate or ternate, with oblong or oblanceolate leaflets, the 

 lower short-petioled, the upper sessile, the teeth ovate-oblong, rather obtuse. Hypan- 

 thium hirsute, in fruit 6-8 mm. in diameter. Bractlets oblong or oblong-oval, obtuse or 

 acute, nearly equalling the triangular-ovate acute sepals. Flowers nearly 1 cm. in diam- 

 eter. Petals obcordate, about equalling the sepals. 



This species greatly resembles P Monspeliensis, especially var. Norvegica, and in this 

 country it has been mistaken for it. It differs mainly in the mostly 5-foliolate leaves, 

 the perennial root and the style. The species is sparingly introduced in the East. Some 

 of the specimens examined are : 



New Jersey and New York: Addison Brown, 1880 and 1881. 



Massachusetts: M. L. Fernald, 1891. 



Michigan : G. H. Hicks. 



Mr. Fernald's specimens have deeper incised leaflets, especially the middle one, and 

 resemble perfectly specimens of P. digitato-flabellata sent to Dr. Gray from the Botanic 

 Garden at Danzig. This species is said to be a native of North America but I cannot find 

 any character that would separate it from P. intermedia. 



