KOSACE.E. 249 



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-seededand 

 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 

 hemisphere without the tropics, especially in Europe and Asia, pene- 

 trating into the Arctic regions, and descending along the mountain- 

 ranges of America to its southern extremity. The genus, already ex- 

 tended by the admission of Tormentilla and Comarum, would, perhaps, 

 be still better defined if the Strawberry and Sibhaldia 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. 



Flowers 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. Creeping 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. Rock P. 



Flowers yellow. 



Stem much branched, often shrubby. Leaflets 



few, oblong 6. Shrubby P. 



Stem creeping. Leaflets numerous, silky under- 

 neath 7. Goose P. 



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

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

 to be met with in our gardens. 



1. Strawberry-leaved Potentil. Potentilla Fragariastrum, 



Ehrh. (Eig. 307.) 



{Frag aria sterilis, Eng. Bot. t. 1785.) 



Resembles the Slraicberry in its short, tufted stems, silky hairs, 3 

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



