MONADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Geranium. 937 



Root very small and slender. Herb shining, succulent, turning 

 bright red when exposed to the light, quite smooth except a few 

 variable scattered hairs on the foliage. Stems spreading in 

 every direction, much branched, leafy, brittle. Leaves much 

 smaller, and less divided, than in the last, roundish-kidney- 

 shaped, on long stalks, 5-lobed, rather bluntly notched, Fl. 

 small, bright rose-coloured. Cal. pyramidal when closed, with 

 5 angles, smooth, some of its leaves strongly wrinkled trans- 

 versely, and all strongly keeled. Pet. narrow, entire. Caps. 

 oblong, somewhat compressed, reticulated at the sides, hairy at 

 the summit, triply keeled at the back, the lateral keels formed 

 by the union of the reticulations, which also make 3, sometimes 

 4 or 5, intermediate furrows. Seeds oval, very smooth. 



Haller says of this species tota planta amat rubescere. 



7. G. mol/e. Common Dove's-foot Crane's-bill. 



Stalks two-flowered, alternate, opposite to the leaves, which 

 are rounded, many-lobed, notched, and downy. Cap- 

 sules numerously wrinkled, smooth. Seeds without dots. 



C^molle. Linn. Sp. PL 935. Willd.v. 3. 7 10. Fl. Br. 734. Engl. 



Bat. V.]]. t. 77S. Curt. Lond.fasc. 2. t. 50. Hook. Scot. 207. 



DeCand. Prodr. v. 1 , G43. Fl. Dan. t. 679. Cavan. Diss. 203. 



^.83./. 3. Ehrh. Herb. 129. 

 G, n, 939, Hall. Hist. V. 1.405. 

 G. columbinum. Raii Syn. 359. Ger. Em. 938. 

 G, columbinum villosum, petalis bifidis. Vaill. Par. 79. t. 15. f.3. 

 G, secundum. Matth. Valgr. v. 2. 208. f. Camer. Epit. 600./. 

 Dove Crane's-bill, Petiv. H. Brit, t, 64./. 1—3. 



In cultivated and waste ground, meadows, pastures, and by way 

 sides, every where. 



Annual. April — August. 



Root tapering. Herb of a light hoary green, downy all over with 

 fine soft hairs, its size and luxuriance extremely variable'. Stems 

 several, spreading, or decumbent, leafy, slightly branched, red- 

 dish, hairy, usually about a foot long, sometimes hardly 3 inches. 

 Leaves rounded rather than kidney-shaped, in many not very 

 deep lobes, all their segments rather broad and wedge-shaped 

 than linear; radical ones numerous, on Ions; footstalks ; the 

 rest alternate, more deeply cut, on shorter stalks. Flower-stalks 

 solitary, alternate, opposite to the leaves, widely spreading. Fl. 

 rather small, light reddish purple, with cloven petals. Stam. all 

 perfect. Cal. hairy. Caps, roundish, curiously puckered or 

 wrinkled, in many transverse curved lines, but not hairy. Seeds 

 oval, perfectly smooth and even, not dotted. 



The wrinkled capsules, to which Linnaeus has incorrectly applied 

 the expression " arillis Urcibus," and which Cavanilles over- 

 looked, arc well described by Curtis. They constitute the most 

 essential ditiercncc between this species, in all its wide varia- 



