192 ENGLISH BOTAKr. 



more acute in var. a than in 3. Peduncles long, with a paii* of 

 ovate-acuminate brownish bracts at the apex, from which a single 

 liedicel is produced, which is shorter than the peduncle. Flowers 

 1 to 1^ inches across, deep crimson. Sepals ovate-elliptical, obtuse, 

 3- or 5-nerved, the middle nei've extending beyond the sepal, and 

 forming a short awn ; nerves Avith long white hairs like those on the 

 stem. Petals deltoid-obovate, spreading so as to make the corolla 

 very slightly concave. Pruit, including the beak, about IJ inch 

 long, with short scattered hairs ; the carpels quite smooth, but the 

 seeds with minute pits all over their surface. Plant green, with 

 rather firm leaves ; stem with long white spreading hairs ; leaves 

 with shorter adpi'essed ones. 



Var. 3 differs considerably in habit from var. «. The stems 

 are more numerous and decumbent, or even prostate, and the 

 leaves appear to be less divided from the segments being shorter, 

 broader, and less acute ; these characters are constant in cultiva- 

 tion, but are too slight to entitle it to be ranked as a sub-species, 

 A curious form of var. jS, the G. lancastriense of Withering, has 

 been found at Walney Island, Lancashire. It has the flowers 

 white or pale pink with red veins, and these colours are here- 

 ditarily constant, though it differs in no other particular from the 

 ■ordinary sea-shore plant. 



Bloody Crane's Bill. 



French, Geranium Sanguin. German, Blutrother Kranichschnahel. 



The beautiful red flowers of this pretty plant recommend it to all lovers of wild 

 flowers. Its mallow-like flowers seem to connect it with the Eastern notion that 

 Geraniums were at first simply mallows, until Mahomet, delighted with the fine tex- 

 ture of a sheet made for him of mallow fibres, changed the plant into the more beautiful 

 Geranium. 



SPECIES II.— G ERANIUM PH-SIUM. Lhm. 

 Plate CCXCIV. 

 Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. V. Geran. Tab. CXCVII. Fig. 4891. 



Rootstock premorse, horizontal, short, thick, scaly, M'ith very 

 short branches. Stems erect, nearly simple, hairy. Radical leaves on 

 long stalks, reniform-angular, 5-cleft, with the lobes oval-rhomboidal, 

 rather acute, slightly cut and serrate ; lower stem leaves alternate, 

 on shorter stalks ; the upper ones opposite, sessile, with the lobes 

 narrower and more acute. Plowers sub-racemose. Peduncles from 

 the axils of the leaves and forks of the stem when it branches, 

 2-flowered. Petals slightly exceeding the sepals, roundish, denti- 

 culate and generally apiculate at the apex. Carpels hairy, trans- 

 versely wrinkled towards the top. Seeds smooth. 



In woods, and the neighbourhood of parks and gardens, but in 



