430 



GERANIACEAE. 



VOL. II. 



3. ERODIUM L'Her. ; Ait. Hort. Kew. 2 : 414. 1789. 



Herbs, generally with jointed nodes, opposite or alternate stipulate leaves, and axillary 

 umbellate nearly regular flowers. Sepals 5, imbricated. Petals 5, hypogynous, imbricated, 

 the 2 upper slightly smaller. Glands 5. Anther-bearing stamens 5, alternating with as many 

 sterile filaments. Ovary 5-lobed, 5-celled, beaked by the united styles, the beak terminating 

 in 5 stigmas; ovules 2 in each cavity. Capsule-lobes i-seeded, the styles elastically dehiscent 

 and coiled spirally at maturity, villous-bearded on the inner side. Seeds not reticulate. 

 [Greek, a heron, from the resemblance of the fruit to its beak and bill.] 



About 60 species, widely distributed in temperate and warm regions. There are three native 

 species in the southwest and several exotic ones have been collected on ballast at the seaports. 

 Type species : Erodium crassifolium Soland. 



i. Erodium cicutarium (L.) L'Her. Hem- 

 lock Stork's-bill or Heron's-bill. Alfilaria. 

 Pink Needle. Fig. 2662. 



Geranium cicutarium L. Sp. PI. 680. 1753. 



E. cicutarium L'Her.; Ait. Hort Kew. 2: 414. 1789. 



Annual, tufted, villous-pubescent, somewhat viscid, 

 erect or ascending, branched, 6'-i2' high. Basal and 

 lower leaves petioled, 3'-7' long, i'-i' wide, pinnate, 

 the divisions finely pinnatifid; upper leaves sessile, , 

 otherwise similar; peduncles generally longer than 7^ 

 the leaves, umbellately 2-i2-flowered ; flowers purple 

 or pink, 4"-$" broad; sepals acute, villous, about 

 equalling the entire petals; carpels hairy; beak i'-ii' 

 long, its divisions spirally coiled when ripe. 



Waste places and fields, Nova Scotia to Ontario, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan and very abundant 

 from Texas to Oregon. Adventive from Europe, in our 

 area. A common weed in the Old World. Pin-clover. 

 Pin-grass. Pinweed. Alfilerilla. Filerie. Wild musk. 

 April-Sept. 



Erodium moschatum Willd., locally naturalized in the 

 eastern states, has much broader less cut leaf-segments, 

 unappendaged sepals and 2-toothed filaments. 



Family 62. OXALIDACEAE Lindl. Nat. Syst. Ed. 2, 140. 1836* 



WOOD-SORREL FAMILY. 



Annual 01 perennial leafy-stemmed or acaulescent herbs, or rarely shrubs, 

 often with rootstocks or scaly bulbs, the sap sour. Leaves mostly palmately 

 3-foliolate, in some exotic species pinnate or entire and peltate; stipules commonly 

 present as scarious expansions of the petiole-bases ; leaflets mostly obcordate. 

 Flowers perfect, in umbel-like or forking cymes, or sometimes solitary ; peduncles 

 mostly long. Sepals 5, often unequal. Petals 5, white, pink, purple or yellow. 

 Stamens 10-15 Ovary 5-celled, 5-lobed; styles united or distinct; ovules 2 many 

 in each cavity ; fruit a loculicidal globose or columnar capsule, rarely baccate. 

 Embryo straight, in fleshy endosperm. 



About 15 genera and about 300 species, chiefly of tropical distribution. 



Plants acaulescent, with bulb-like or scaly rootstocks ; corolla white, pink or rose-purple. 



Sepals without apical tubercles; rootstocks elongated. i. O.ralis. 



Sepals with apical tubercles ; rootstocks bulb-like. 2. lono.ralis. 



Plants caulescent ; corolla yellow. 3. Xanthoxalis. 



i. OXALIS L. Sp. PI. 433- 1753- 



Perennial herbs, with slender more or less scaly rootstocks. Leaves basal, solitary or 

 several together, with the petioles dilated at the base, palmately 3-foliolate; leaflets notched 

 at the apex, usually with a membranous fold in the sinus. Scapes solitary or several 

 together, topped by a single pedicel or rarely with an umbel-like cyme. Flowers perfect, 

 homogenous. Sepals 5, the inner longer than the outer. Petals white or pink, delicate, much 

 longer than the sepals, often obliquely notched at the apex. Stamens 10: filaments commonly 

 glabrous. Capsule relatively short. Seeds few or several in each cavity, pitted and grooved 

 or striate. [Greek, sour, from the acid juice.] 



About 6 species, natives of the northern hemisphere, the following typical. 



* Revised by Dr. J. K. SMALL. 



