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P O T E N T I L L A aurea.
Golden Cinquefoil,
I C O S A N D R I A Polygynia.
G en. Ch a r. Cal. in 10 fegments. Petals 3. Seeds
roundifh, naked, generally wrinkled, affixed to a
fmall dry receptacle.
Spec. Ch a r. Radical leaves in fives, obovate, deeply
ferrated, hairy, fomewhat membranaceous : ftem-
leaves ternate. Stem nearly ereft.
Sy n. Potentilla aurea. Linn. Sp. PI. 712. With. 473.
FI. Dan. t. 114.
Quinquefolium minus, flore aureo. Ger. em. 990.
jL OTENTILLA aurea is firft introduced upon the lift of
Britifh plants in Dr. Withering’s new edition; on the fuppofi-
tion of its being the P e n t a p h y l l u m p a r v u m h i r f u t u m of Ray’s
Synopfis, referred by Hudfon to P. o p a c a of Linnaeus. But
Mr. Curtis is mod probably right in referring Ray’s plant to
the v e r n a , of which we were not aware when that fpecies was
defcribed in our ift volume. We therefore now introduce the
real a u r e a as a new acquifition to the Flora, having been gathered
in 1793 on Ben Lawers and other mountains in Bread-
albane by Mr. John Mackay, from whom we received it. The
root is perennial, and it flowers in the middle of fummer.
The items are from 3 to 6 inches high, nearly eredt, branched,
leafy, hairy. Leaves thin and almoft membranous, of a lighter
green than in P. v e r n a , with footftalks more than twice as long
as in that plant; the leaflets are 3 , a little fhining, fomewhat
hairy, paler beneath, and deeply ferrated towards the top. The
ftem-leaves confift of but 3 leaflets, with fhorter ftalks, the upper
ones generally oppofite. Stipulse lanceolate, entire. Flower-
ftalks axillary and terminal, folitary, long, fingle-flowered, hairy,
eredt. Calyx hairy, its fegments all nearly equal in length, but
alternately narrower. Petals heartfhaped, of a full yellow and
almoft orange colour. Seeds longitudinally wrinkled, which
Gsertner confiders as a diftinguifhing character of this genus.
Mr. Mackay thinks he has difcovered another new P o t e n t i l l a in the highlands, with which we hope in due time to make the
public acquainted.