Geraniales.] 



GERANIACE^. 



493 



Order CLXXXVII. GERANIACE^.— Cranesbills. 



Gerania, ./(m. 6en. 268.(1789*.— Geraniaceae, DC. Fl. Fr. 4. 828. (1805) ; Prodr. 1. 637. (1824) ; Endl. 

 Gen. ccliv. ; Meisner Gen. p. 57. 



Diagnosis. — Oeranial Exogens, tvith usually symmetrical flowers, and \oitli styles and 

 carpels combined round a long beaked torus. 



Herbaceous plants or shrubs. Stems tumid, and separable at the jomts. Leaves 

 either opposite or alternate ; in the latter case opposite the peduncles, with membranous 

 stipules. Flowers 

 white, red, yellow, 

 or purple. Sepals 5, 

 persistent, ribbed, 

 more or less un- 

 equal, with an im- 

 bricated aestivation; 

 1 sometimes sac- 

 cate or spurred at 

 the base. Petals 5, 

 seldom 4, in conse- 

 quence of 1 being 

 abortive ; unguicu- 

 late, t%visted in aes- 

 tivation, equal or 

 vmequal, either hy- 

 pogynous or peri- 

 gynous. Stamens 

 usually monadel- 

 phous,hypogynous, 

 twice or thrice as 

 many as the petals; 

 some occasionally 

 abortive. Ovary 

 composed of 5 car- 

 pels placed round 

 a long awl-shaped 

 torus or growing 

 point, each 1 -celled, 

 2-seeded ; styles 5, 

 cohering round the 

 torus and separable 

 from it ; o^^Iles 

 semianatropal, ad- 

 hering to the torus. 

 Fruit formed of 

 5 shells, cohering 

 round a long beaked 



Fig. CCCXXXVIII. 



torus ; each piece containing 1 seed, having a membranous pericarp, and terminated 

 by an indurated style, which finally curls back from the base upwards, can'j'ing the 

 pericarp along with it. Seeds soUtary, \\ithout albumen. Embryo cvn-ved and doubled 

 up ; radicle pointing to the base of the cell ; cotyledons foliaceous, convolute, and 

 plaited. 



The long beak-hke torus, round which the carpels are aiTanged, and the presence of 

 membranous stipules at joints which are usually tumid, are the true marks of this Order; 

 and all plants not possessing those peculiarities must be excluded. Among them 

 is a South American genus called Rhynchotheca, which has been even elevated into a 

 Natural Order, but which is surely an Oxalid without petals ; for the beak observed in 

 its fruit belongs to the carpels and not to the torus. It is clear that in this Order the 

 ovules do not spring from the margins of the carpellary leaves. E. g. take P. zonale, 



Fig. CCCXXXVIII.— Gemnium Robertiauum. 1. its stamens ; 2. its ovar>- : 3. a section of its seed. 



