Tab. 7346. 

 PELARGONIUM Dbummondii. 



Native of Western Australia. 



Nat. Ord. Geraniace^:. — Tribe Gbranie^. 

 Genus Pelargonium, Linn.; (Benth. & BZooTc.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 273j 



Pelargonium Drummondii; snffrutescens, tota molliter patentim pilosa, 

 caule robusto e recto ramoso, foliis longe petiolatis cordato-rotnndatis 

 5-lobis crenato-dentatis rugosis fragrantibus, stipulis amplis crenatis, 

 floribus 1 poll. diam. ad apicem pedunculi elongati eongestis brevissime 

 pedicellatis, bracteis brevibus, calycis tubo obconico, lobia ovato-oblongis 

 accrescentibus, petalis eepalis duplo longioribus obovato-spathulatis 

 roseis 2 posticis conniventibus maculis dentriticia rubria notatia, 

 staminibus fertilibus ad 8 exsertis, capsulis lj-pollicaribus patentim 

 pilosis. 



P. Drummondii, Turcz. in Bull. Mosc. (1858), vol. i. p. 421. 



Bentham in the "Flora Australiensis " (vol. i. p. 299) 

 has included Pelargonium Drummondii under P. australis, 

 as a robust, large- flowered form of that exceedingly 

 variable plant. Though not disposed to pronounce an 

 opposite view with any approach to conviction, I cannot 

 but think that more evidence in support of an assent is 

 required than is afforded by the copious suites of speci- 

 mens of P. australis from all parts of its wide range of 

 distribution, which are contained in the Kew Herbarium. 

 P. australis inhabits all the temperate shores and many 

 inland districts of Australia, New Zealand, and the Islet 

 of Tristan d'Acunha, and sports into eight more or less 

 distinguishable forms connected by intermediates (besides 

 that of Drummondii) which have been brought under one 

 by Bentham ; they are P. glomeratum, Jacq., inodorum, 

 Willd., littorale, Hueg., crinitum, JSTees, stenanthum, Turcz., 

 erodiodes, Hook., clandestinum, L'Her., and acugnaticum, 

 Thou. In its typical form it is a slender, decumbent 

 plant, with leaves I-1J rarely 2 in. diam., and flowers 

 about j to ^ in. diam., and, as Bentham observes, it cannot 

 be separated from the S. African var. anceps of P. grossu- 

 larioides (P. anceps, Ait.). In support of which view it 

 may be confidently assumed that Tristan d'Acunha owes 

 its possession of the species to transport from the neigh- 

 bouring continent of Africa (the headquarters of the 

 genus), and not to remote Australia. 



March 1st, 1894. 



