S 1 8 a ER ANzirni. no. 43. 



few short fibres. Stem erect^ round, with few di- 

 chotome branches and leaves^ covered as well as the 

 petiols with retrorse hairs, and from one to three feet 

 high. Several radical leaves on long petiols, the stem 

 leaves opposite, at the distant forks, on shorter petiols; 

 floral leaves nearly sessile: all are palmate, five parted, 

 seldom three parted, segments oblong or cuneate, pu- 

 bescent entire at the base, unequally jagged above, 

 sometimes spotted: stipules linear or lanceolate, mem- 



branaceous ciliate. 



Flowers geminate on biflore peduncles, arising from 



the forks, erect, round, swelled at the base, with linear 

 bracts, similar to the stipules. Calix formed by fiy 

 deep segments, oval lanceolate, cuspidate, fivenerv 

 hairy outside, margin membranaceous or cili 

 Five equal petals, obovate, entire, red with p' 

 veins, twice as long as the calix. Stamina 10, filam. 

 erect, shorter than the petals, connected at the bat 

 filiform above, five alterne shorter, anthers oblong 

 violet — Germ ovate, * with five glands at the base, 

 style erect, grooved, persistent, five oblong obtuse 

 stigmas. Fruit a capsul divided into five cocoas or 

 one seeded capsuls, attached inside to the style, and 

 curling up at maturity, 



LocALiTT — All over the United States from Maine 

 to Louisiana,. Missouri and Florida; very common in 

 woods, copices, hedges, glades, &c- no where more 

 abundant than in the western glades of Kentucky, &c. 



HISTORY— The genus Gerakium* of Linnaeus 

 forms a most beautiful group of plants, of which nearly 

 ^00 kinds are known, and many adorn our gardens. 



