Potentilla. | XXVI. ROSACER. 137 
Leaves green on both sides. 
Stems creeping, and rooting at the nodes . F . 2. P. reptans. — 
Stems short and tufted or procumbent, butnotrooting 5. P. verna. 
Leaves pinnately divided. 
Flowers dingy-purple . d ° : : f ; . 9. P. Comarum. 
Flowers white . : 3 ‘5 5 5 ; d , . 8 P. rupestris. 
Flowers yellow. 
Stem much branched, often shrubby. Leaflets few, ob- ° 
lon 6. P. fruticosa. 
Stem creeping. Leaflets numerous, silky underneath . 7. P. anserina. 
Two red-flowered East Indian species, with digitate leaves, P. nepalensis 
and P. atropurpurea, and several of their hybrids, are frequently to be met 
with in our gardens. [P. norvegica, Linn., a hirsute erect annual with 
palmately 3-foliolate leaves and yellow flowers, is naturalized in several 
English counties, and multiplying rapidly. | 
1, P. Fragariastrum, Khrh. (fig.312). Strawberry-leaved Potentil.— 
Resembles the Strawberry in its short, tufted stems, silky hairs, 3 leaflets 
regularly toothed almost all round, and white flowers; but the receptacle 
does not swell or become succulent as the fruit ripens. The stem itself is 
also often shortly creeping, either under 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 central 
Kurope, extending northward to south Sweden, and eastward to the Crimea 
and the Caucasus. Abundant in England, Ireland, and southern Scotland, 
but becoming rare in the Highlands. 7. early spring. 
2, P.reptans, Linn. (fig. 313). Creeping Potentil, Cinquefoil.—Stock 
seldom much tufted, with slender, prostrate stems, often rooting at tne 
nodes, and sometimes extending to a considerable length. Stipules ovate, 
mostly entire. Leaves all stalked, with 5 obovate or oblong, coarsely- 
toothed leaflets. ° Flowers single, on long peduncles, apparently axillary, or 
rarely forming a loose terminal cyme, as in P. Tormentilla. Petals large 
and yellow, mostly 5, but occasionally 4. 
In rich pastures, borders of meadows, edges of woods, and hedges, 
throughout Europe and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Abun- 
dant in England and Ireland, but decreasing much in Scotland. Y%, 
summer and autumn. Much as the common form of this species differs 
from the following one, it is by some supposed to bea mere variety, and 
certainly the procumbent variety of the true Zormentilla appears to be 
intermediate between the two. 
3. P. Tormentilla, Sibth. (fig. 314). Tormentil Potenti).—Rootstock 
thick and woody. Stems erect, or procumbent at the base, several times 
forked, more or less silky-hairy as well as the leaves. Lower leaves 
often shortly stalked, and like those of P. reptans, but the upper ones 
always sessile, consisting of 38, or rarely 5, deeply-toothed leaflets. 
Peduncles in the forks of the stem, or in the axils of the upper leaves, form- 
ing a loose, leafy, terminal cyme. Flowers small, bright yellow, and mostly 
with 4 petals; the first one, however, of each stem has occasionally 5. 
On heaths, moors, and pastures, in open woods, etc., throughout Europe 
and Russian Asia, to the Arctic region. One of the most abundant and 
most generally diffused British plants. #7. summer. The P. procumbens, 
