240 MONADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Geranium. 



10. G. rotundifolmm. Soft Round-leaved Crane's-bill. 



Stalks two-flowered. Petals entire. Leaves kidney-shaped, 

 cut, downy. Capsules even, hairy. Seeds reticulated. 



G. rotundifolium. Linn. Sp. PL957. Willd.v.S. 7 12. FLBr.736. 

 Engl. Bot. V. 3.t. 157. Light/. 1 lOG. Hook. Scot. 207 ? De- 

 Cand. Prodr. v. I. 643. Cavan. Diss. 214. t. 93. /. 2. Ehrh. 

 Herb. 139. 



G. malvaceum a. Biirm. Ger. 24, 



G. n. 94 1 . Hall. Hist. v. 1 . 405. 



Large-flowered Dove Crane's-bill. Petiv. H. Brit. t. 64./. 5. 



In waste ground and barren pastures, as also on walls and banks, 

 but not very common. 



About Bath, Bristol and London. Huds. At Hackney and Isling- 

 ton, and at Church Bramton, Northamptonshire. Mr. E. Forster. 

 Common in Suffolk. Mr. Woodward. Near North Marchiston, 

 the seat of Principal Robertson. Dr. Hope. 



Annual, June, July. 



Whole herb peculiarly soft, like velvet, with a considerable de- 

 gree of viscidity, noticed by Haller. In general appearance it 

 most resembles the usual state of G. molle ; but all the leaves, 

 even the uppermost, are opposite. This character has led me to 

 transfer to the molle some synonyms of old authors, applied in 

 Fl. Br., on the authority of C. Bauhin and others, to the present 

 species ; for the alternate leaves in their figures, not to men- 

 tion other characters, when carefully e.xamined, agree better 

 with that far more common plant than with this. The powers 

 of G. rotundifolium have a viscid calyx, and narrow, undivided, 

 light crimson petals. Caps, turgid, thin, slightly keeled, clothed 

 with prominent hairs ; the surface quite even, never wrinkled ; 

 the awns are, in like manner, hairy externally. Seeds oval, not 

 so properly dotted, as entirely covered with a curious net-work 

 of fine, regular, prominent wrinkles ; which obviously and de- 

 cidedly distinguish this from every species with which it could 

 be confounded : especially from molle and pusillum, under all 

 their different aspects. No ambiguity attends this character. 

 DeCandolle has understood and adopted it ; Willdenow omits 

 it, and Cavanilles says the fruit and seeds of G. rotundifolium 

 are the same as those of the lucidum ; for indeed he paid no 

 proper attention to those important parts. Lightfoot does not 

 advert to the seeds of the rotundifolium ; but I have specimens 

 from himself correctly named. We now readily discriminate 

 these plants, which Haller found so difficult, and Linnaeus so 

 little understood. No part of our whole Flora is more free 

 from obscurity; nor are the foreign species of Geranium and its 

 allies less capable of clear illustration on the same principles. 



