Floerkea. GERANIACE^. 363 



3. PELARG-6NIUM, L'Her. (Name from TrcXapyos, a stork, for the 



same reason as in Erodium.) — At length caulescent herbs or low shrubs with 



leaves and stipules as in Erodium. Flowers usually clustered on commonly 



elongated peduncles. — Geraniol. t. 7-35, etc. ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 273 ; 



Reiche in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 4, 10. — Mostly natives of 



Africa and Australia, including the so-called Geraniums of cultivation. 



P. Anceps, L'Her. Cespitosely spreading from a stout root, with subsessile glandular pubes- 

 cence above : leaves round-reniform, creuulate and obscurely crenately lobed, more or less 

 crisped, usually much shorter thau their petioles : flowers rather densely umbelled, minute, 

 deep violet : petals about equal to and pedicels a little longer than the short scabrous sepals : 

 beak of fruit about 6 lines long. — L'Her. in Ait. Kew. ii. 420 ; Jacq. Collect, iv. 184, t. 22, 

 f. 3; A. Eastwood, Erythea, iv. 34. — Oakland, California, Miss Eastwood. A chance 

 introduction. (Adv. from S. Afr.) 



4. TROPu^OLUM, L. Nasturtium. (Name from rpoiraiov, a sign of 



victory, from the shield-shaped leaves.) — Climbing or spreading slender-stemmed 



pungent herbs with alternate frequently peltate round leaves. Stipules wanting 



or minute. Flowers solitary in the axils, mostly on slender peduncles. — Gen. 



no. 323 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 274 ; Reiche, 1. c. 26 ; Buchenau in Engl. 



Jahrb. xv. 180-259, xxii. 157-183. — Natives of South America. 



T. mAjus, L. Straggling, glabrous : leaves round, peltate, repand : flowers large, variously 

 yellow or reddish, the lower petals fimbriate at base. — Spec. i. 345 ; Curtis, Bot. Mag. t. 

 23 ; Greene, Fl. Francis, i. 99. — A Peruvian plant, escaping from cultivation in California 

 fide Greene, 1. c. 



■ 5. FLCilRKEA, Willd. (Named after Florke, a German botanist.) — 

 Pungent, soft-stemmed annual herbs with alternate once-thrice-pinnately dissected 

 petioled mostly exstipulate leaves. — Neue Schr. Ges. Nat. Fr. Berlin, iii. 448 ; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 210 ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 139, t. 154; Benth. & Hook. Gen. 

 i. 275 ; Baill. Hist. PI. v. 20 ; Trelease, Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. iv. 85 ; 

 Reiche in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 5, 137. — Exclusively North 

 American ; the type of the genus trimerous, while the other species constitute 

 Limnanthes, a scarcely separable genus which, however, is still maintained by 

 some authors. 



* Flowers trimerous : petals oblong, entire, subacute, shorter than the sepals, open in aesti- 

 vation : stigmas little enlarged : peduncles bent below the flower. — Floerkea proper. 



P. proserpinacoides, Willd. 1. c. 449. (False Mermaid.) Glabrous, weak-stemmed, 

 a span to a foot high : divisions of leaves 3 to mostly 5, linear, lanceolate or occasionally 

 elliptical, remote, entire : petals white, not over a line long : fruit subglobose, 1| to 2 lines 

 long, loosely tuberculate. — Lindl. Jour. Bot. i. 1, t. 113; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 210; Gray, 

 1. c. ; Trelease, 1. c. 85. F. lacustris, Pers. Syn. i. 393. F. uliginosa, Muhl. Cat. 36. F.palus- 

 tris, Nutt. Gen. i. 229. Nectris pinnata, Pursh, Fl. i. 239. Cahomha pinnata, Schult. Syst. vii. 

 1379. — Canada to Oregon, south in the East to Pennsylvania and Illinois, and in the West 

 to California and Utah. 



* * Flowers 4-6-merons : petals oblong- to obovate-cuneate, truncate or emarginate, con 

 volute : stigmas small, capitate : peduncles mostly straight. — Limnanthes. 



4— Flowers 4-merous : petals short and narrow. 

 F. Macounii, Trelease, n. comb. Glabrous, 2 or 3 inches high : divisions of leaves 5 to 

 9, remote, small, ovate, mo.stly 3-cleft, with acute lobes : sepals rather obtuse : petals white, 

 1^ to 2 lines long: nutlets obovoid, 1^ lines long, with very prominent tubercles. — Lim- 

 nanthes Macounii, Trelease, 1. c. 85. — Vancouver Island, Macoun. 



