ICOSANDRIA FOLYGYXIA 303 



239. POTENTILLA. L. Xutt. Gen. 449. 

 [Latin, potent powerful; in reference to its supposed medical virtues.] 



Calux concave ; limb mostly 5-clcft, with an external bract at each 

 cleft (appearing 10 cleft). Petals mostly 5. Carpels numerous, 

 roundish, rugose, naked, capitate on a small dry persistent receptacle. 

 Herbaceous, or rarely fruticose : leaves compound (ternate, digitate, or pinnate); 

 stipules adnate to the petiole ; flowers solitary, or subcorymbose, axillary and 

 terminal. Nat. Ora\ 73. Lindl. Rosacea. 



♦ Leaves ternate. 



1. P. xohvegica,£. Hirsute; stem erect, dichotomous above; leaves 

 ternate ; leaflets lance-oval and obovate-oblong, simply and doubly in- 

 cised-serrate ; stipules lanceolate ; peduncles axillary, subcorymbose at 

 summit ; petals obovate, emarginate, shorter than the calyx. Becky 

 Bot.p. 106. 



NORWEGIAN POTKNTILXA. 



Whole plant hirsute. Root annual. Stem 1 to 2 feet high, simple below, dichoto- 

 mously branched above. Leaves all trifoliate, on petioles I to 4 inches long ; 

 leaflets 1 to 3 inches long, and 3 fourths of an inch to an inch and half wide, lateral 

 ones sessile, or subsessile, terminal one on a short petiole, all coarsely and often 

 doubly incised-serrate. Stipules large (often an inch or more in length), lanceolate* 

 acute, entire, or partially iobed. Flowers often numerous, in leafy corymbs at 

 summit, and on long solitary peduncles below; peduncles half an inch to an inch 

 and half long, the lower ones often opposite the leaves. Calyx-segments ovate- 

 lanceolate, rather acuminate ; bracts lanceolate, rather longer than the calyx- 

 segments, giving the appearance of 10 nearly equal segments. Petals yellow, oval, 

 or Obovate, slightly emarginate. Carpels somewhat compressed, obliquely ovate, 

 with the style lather on one side of the apex, rugosely ribbed, ribs diverging below. 

 Receptacle^zo'id, acute, hairy. 

 Hab. Pastures, and roadsides: frequent. Fl. July— Aug. /V.September. 



Obs. This may be a native here ; but to me it has the appearance of an intro- 

 duced plant. 



* * Leaves digitate. 



2. P. canadensis, L. Villose ; stem procumbent, and ascending, 

 somewhat branched, or sarmentose from near the base ; leaves quinate ; 

 leaflets sessile, cuneate-obovate, acutely incised-dentate, clothed with 

 an appressed whitish silky villus beneath. Beck, Bot.p. 106. 



P. sarmentosa. Bigel. Bost. p. 204. Also, Eat. Man. p. 280. Not? 



oiMuhl. 



Canadian PoTEXTiLLi. Vulgo— Oinque-foil. Barren Strawberry. 



Root perennial, thick, oftpn branching, with numerous strong fibres. Stem 2 to 

 10 or 12 inches long, often several from the same root, slender, at first rather erect, 

 or asfiurgent, at length procumbent, villose. Radical leaves on spreading petioles 

 1 or 2 to 5 inches long ; leaflets half an inch to an inch and half long, and 1 third 

 of an inch to near an inch wide, obovate, mostly obtuse, sharply incised-dentate 

 above the middle, cuneate and entire below the middle ; stem leav es few,— those 

 above sometimes sessile, ternate, and simple; stipules ovate, entire, or incised. 

 Plotters on slender axillary peduncles I to 2 inches in length. Calyx-segmenU 



