POTENTILLA opaca.
Saw-leaved Hairy Cinquefoil.
I C O S A N D R 1 A P o l y g y n i a .
G e n . C h a r . Cal. in 10 segments. Petals 5. Seeds
roundish, naked, generally wrinkled, affixed to a
small dry receptacle.
S p e c . C h a r . Radical leaves of seven hairy, linearwedgeshaped,
deeply seriated leaflets ; stem-leaves
mostly opposite, of three. Stems slender, decumbent.
S y n . Potentilla opaca. Linn. Sp, PI. 7 1 3 . Amcen.
Acad. v. 4. 274. Donn. Cant. ed. 5 . 129.
Quinquefolium quartum, flavo flore, secunda species.
Clus. Hist. v. 2. 106.y. 3 .
Pentaphyllum incanum, minus, repens. Ger. em.
989- .
"W"HAT Hudson took for the Potentilla opaca, appeared from
the inquiries of the late Rev. Mr. Wood, about Kippax in Yorkshire,
to be only verna, and scarcely a variety. Mr. Donn of
Cambridge however has received from Scotland the true opaca,
such as we have also from Switzerland, sent by Mr. Davall.
We have cultivated Mr. Donn’s plant for several years, and find
it invariable, though perhaps our garden specimens may be more
luxuriant than those of the mountains. It flowers in June, and
is perennial.
Numerous stems spring from the firm woody root, spreading
in every direction, decumbent, forming a lax tuft. Each is round,
hairy, branched or forked above. Radical leaves on long stalks;
stem-leaves nearly sessile, mostly opposite; leaflets three in the
latter, seven, rarely five or nine, in the former, all of a narrow
wedge-shape, very strongly and distantly serrated or toothed,
hairy, not hoary. Flowers handsome, of a rich orange yellow,
on long, solitary, axillary or lateral stalks.