206 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Annual or perennial herbs with the habit of Geranium, but with 

 the leaves most commonly pinnately veined and pinnately divided. 

 Peduncles commonly bearing a number of flowers ; beaks of carpels 

 twisting in their lower portion like a corkscrew, the apical portion 

 remaining untwisted. 



The generic name of these plants comes from tpwcwg (erodios), a heron, from the 

 form of the carpels resembling the head and beak of that bii'd. 



SPECIES I.— ERODIUM CICUTARIUM. rffent. 



Plate CCCVII. 



Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, at Helv. Vol. V. Geran. Tab. CLXXXIII. Fig. 4864 



Leaves all pinnate. Leaflets sessile or sub-sessile, ovate or 

 oblong, deeply pinnatifld with the segments entire or with 1 or 2 

 projecting teeth near the apex. Sepals ovate or lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate or cuspidate. Peduncles 2- to 8-flowered. Bracts at the base 

 of the pedicels ovate-cuspidate. Petals as long as or longer than 

 the sepals. Pilaments of the fertile stamens tapering gradually 

 from the base to the apex, linear-lanceolate, not toothed ; filaments 

 of the sterile stamens linear-lanceolate. Carpels hairy, with a 

 circular depression on each side at the apex ; the depression 

 without glands, surrounded by a raised margin, beyond which 

 there is a shallow concenti'ic curved furrow on the basal side. 



Var. a, viilgatum. 



Stems decumbent or prostrate. Stem leaves with the lobes of 

 the pinnae short, oblong or obovate, not tapering gradually to the 

 apex which is scarcely acute. Elowers few. Petals equalling or 

 slightly exceeding the sepals, which are clothed with more or less 

 spreading hairs often glandular. Plant more or less hairy, generally 

 with many of the hairs gland-tipped. 



Var. 0, cli(Brophijllum. D. C. 



Stems ascending or decumbent. Stem leaves with the lobes 

 of the pinnae oblong or lanceolate, gradually tapering to the acute 

 apex. Flowers more numerous than in var. a. Petals twice 

 as long as the sepals, which are clothed with adpressed strigose 

 hairs not tipped with glands. Plant more or less hairy, the hairs 

 mostly without glands. 



In waste sandy places and hedgebanks ; var. 3 chiefly in culti- 



