414 THE SEA SHORE 



allied to the vetches, but may be distinguished by the style, which 

 is flattened below the stigma, hairy on the inner or tipper side, but 

 quite smooth on the outer side. The sea-side species has an 

 angled (but not winged) stem, from one to three feet long, com- 

 pound tendrilled leaves with many oval leaflets, and large oval or 

 cordate stipules. Its purple flowers are in bloom during July and 

 August. A variety of this plant (acutifolius)> with a slender strag- 

 gling stem and narrow acute leaflets, occurs on some parts of the 

 Scottish coast. 



The Geraniacece is represented at the sea-side by the Sea 

 Stork's-bill (Erodium maritimum), which, however, is by no 

 means a very common flower. Its relationship to the other stork's- 



FIG. 301. THE SEA STORK'S-BILL 



bills and the crane's-bills may be readily proved by the five 

 persistent sepals, five distinct clawed petals, the five to ten stamens 

 attached under the ovary (for we have now reached that division 

 of the polypetalous esogens distinguished by this mode of insertion 

 of the stamens), and the five carpels surrounding a long beak 

 resembling that of the stork and the crane. The plant may 

 sometimes be seen on sandy shores, averaging a foot in height, 

 though very variable in this respect, and displaying its pretty pink 

 flowers during the whole of the summer. The principal features 

 by which it is to be distinguished from the two other British plants 

 of the same species are its ovate or cordate leaves with very 



