254 



THE ROSE FAMILY. 



8. Rock Potentil. Potentilla rupestris, Linn. (Fig. 314.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 2058.) 



Stock perennial, sometimes forming a 

 very short, woody stem, the annual 

 flower-stems 6 to 10 inches high. Leaves 

 chiefly radical, pinnate ; the common 

 stalk rather long ; the leaflets 5 or rarely 

 7, ovate, toothed, green, and somewhat 

 glutinous. The stem-leaves few and 

 smaller, usually with only 3 leaflets. 

 Flowers few, rather large, of a pure 

 white, forming a loose, irregular corymb. 

 In clefts of rocks, in limestone districts, 

 in the mountain-ranges of central and 

 southern Europe, and across the whole 

 continent of Asia, extending northwards 

 into southern Sweden. In Britain, only 

 on the Breiddin hills in Montgomery- 

 shire, except where it may have esta- 

 blished itself for a time in the neigh- 

 bourhood of gardens in which it has been cultivated. Fl. May and 

 June. 



Fig. 314. 



9. Marsh Potentil. Potentilla Comarum, Nestl. (Fig. 315.) 



(Comaram palustre, Eng. Bot. t. 172.) 



A perennial, 1 to 1| feet high, often 

 assuming a bluish-purple colour ; gla- 

 brous or more or less hairy in the 

 upper part; the stems decumbent and 

 rooting at the base. Stipules not dis- 

 tinct from the enlarged base of the leaf- 

 stalk. Leaflets mostly 5, shortly pin- 

 nate at the end of the stalk, oblong, 

 toothed, nearly glabrous above and 

 hoary underneath, or softly hairy on 

 both sides, and often near 2 inches long. 

 Flowers in a loose, irregular corymb, 

 of a dingy purple ; the inner segments of 

 the calyx broad, with long points, the 

 outer ones narrow and much smaller. 

 Petals shorter than the calyx. Carpels 

 Fig. 315. numerous and small, on a somewhat en- 



