POTENTILLA. 
245 
Tribe II. Dryadea. 
5. POTENTILLA L. 
* Hairs of recept. shorter than the smooth carpels. 
1. P. PROCUMBENS Sibth. Solda. 
More or less hairy, st. flagelliform prostrate or procumbent, 
rarely rooting ; lower stip. simple entire, upper 2-3-cleft ; 1. all 
stalked, subpedately quinate or ternate, obovate-wedgeshaped, 
sharply and deeply toothed above the middle, below entire ; 
A. mostly tetramerous, pet. obcordate with a very short claw ; 
carp, obliquely 3- or 4-ribbed or wrinkled on each side . — u Sibth. 
FI. Oxon. 162 ”; Koch 239. P nemoralis Nestl. Pot. 65. P. Tor - 
mentilla e. nemoralis Ser. in DC. ii. 574; Seub. FI. Azor. 48. 
no. 359. P. Tormentilla 13, Bab. 94. P. replans Buch 197. no. 380 
(not Linn.). Tormentilla reptans L., Sm. EB. t. 864; E. FI. ii. 
428; Hook. FI. Sc. i. 164. — Herb. per. Mad. reg. 2, 3, ccc. Bare 
open mountain pastures and thickets, chestnut-woods, &c., 
everywhere chiefly from 1500-5000 ft. Throughout the year. 
— Very variable in size and luxuriance. Bootstock stout some- 
what woody blackish. St. runner-like weak and slender branched 
dichotomously, either quite prostrate or trailing loosely and 
ascending amongst other herbage, 3-12 in. long ; only occa- 
sionally and after fl. rooting at the joints. Stip. leafy often 
small or inconspicuous. L. always distinctly stalked. Lfts. 
3-6 or 9 lines long, stalked, often smooth above, but always hairy 
beneath along the nerves and edges ; coarsely serrated above the 
middle with a few lanceolate acute teeth. Fl. bright y. on long 
slender stalks from the axils with a leafy palmate-cleft br., in- 
termediate in size between the fl. of P. reptans L. and those of 
P. Tormentilla Sibth. Pet. 4 very rarely 5. Sep. 8 very rarely 
10, linear-lanceolate, as long as the pet., unequal, the outer or 
alternate narrower or smaller. Becept. hairy. Carpels smooth, 
with 3 or 4 faint indistinct oblique ribs or wrinkles towards 
the top on each side. 
No pi. can be more constant in its char, than this is in Mad. ; 
and I have seen no symptoms whatever of transition either 
towards P. Tormentilla Sibth. or P. reptans L. I consider it a 
good sp., agreeing therein with most of the older and one at 
least of the best modem practical working botanists, Koch, 
whose excellent observations on it I transcribe : u It differs from 
Potentilla reptans in the sharp lanceolate more spreading teeth 
of the 1., in the mostly tetramerous fl., and in the carpels rugose on 
the back with a few tubercles, and not merely tuberculate ; from 
the following, i. e. Potentilla Tormentilla Sibth., in the stalked 
