GERANIUM. €— 133 
E s 
from L. Staphylea, except the slightly furrowed stem of the former, and we 
have occasionally seen the young shoots of the other likewise furrowed. We 
fear that in this genus neither the pubescence, nor the angled stems, are of 
sufficient importance for the discrimination of species. 
ORDER XLL—GERANIACE/JE. Juss. 
Sepals 5, persistent, more or less unequal, or sometimes produced 
at the base into a spur that is connate with the pedicel : æstivation im- 
bricated. Petals 5 (or, by abortion 4, rarely 0), unguiculate, equal 
and hypogynous, or unequal and either connected at their base or in- 
serted on the calyx: :estivation twisted. Stamens rarely free, usually 
monadelphous at the hase, hypogynous or perigynous, twice or thrice 
as many as the petals (some occasionally abortive). Ovarium 5-celled : 
ovules 2 in each cell, pendulous: styles 5, cohering round a central 
elongated axis or torus. Fruit of 5 membranous 1-celled indehiscent 
carpels, which at first are close pressed to the base of the torus; each 
ending in the style (or awn) that is closely adnate to the angles of the 
torus, but after maturity twists variously from the base to the apex and 
carries the pericarp along with it. Seed solitary in each carpel, Pai- 
tropal. Albumen 0. Embryo curved: radicle superior, but with its 
extremity bent down towards the hilum : cotyledons inferior, foliaceons, 
convolutely or flexuosely plaited.— Leaves simple, stipulate, opposite, 
or alternate, with peduncles opposite to them. 
We omit here Pelargonium zonale, Willd. (Wight! cat. n. 436), P. Radula, Ait. 
(Wight! cat. n. 437), and P. glomeratum, Jacq. (Wight ! cat. n. 973), both being 
cultivated in the porta an natives of the Cine of Good Hope. 
I. GERANIUM. Linn. ; L'Her.; Lam. ill. t. 573. f. 1; Gaertn. fr. t. 79. 
` Sepals 5, equal. Petals 5, equal. Stamens 10, all fertile; alternate ones 
larger with a nectariferous gland at their base. Awns of the carpels with 
their inner side glabrous, at length separating elastically from the base of the 
axis upwards, and becoming circinately revolute.—Héerbaceous or rarely suf- 
frutescent plants. Leaves palmately lobed. Peduncles 1-2 flowered. 
_438. (1) G. affine (W. & A.:) root fascicled, perennial: stems herbaceous, 
$e, procumbent, angled, and as well as the peduncles and petioles cloth- 
ed with spreading hairs: leaves 5-lobed, slightly hairy above, villous on the 
nerves and veins beneath ; lobes cuneate-ovate, unequally lobed and toothed, 
teeth blunt and tipped with a short point: stipules lanceolate, acuminated, 
ciliated: peduncles much longer than the leaves, 2-flowered: sepals elliptic- 
oblong, 3- (or sometimes 5- nerved, blunt, with a mucro about six times 
Shorter than the sepal: petals entire, obovate, nearly twice as long as the 
calyx: stamens subulate from a broad base, distinct, in a double series, nearly 
mae dt pistil villous: carpels hairy ; seeds glabrous, reticulated.— Wight! 
n. A ^ 1 
;, While G. palustre, longipes, collinum, and several others, with the same 
S ds of carpels and seeds, are kept distinct, the present species must be so 
“wise > but we cannot point out any one certain character to distinguish 
half of the species of the genus retained by the majority of botanists. 
m 
