208 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



are attached has the power of contracting and dilating according to the weather, be it 

 wet or dry ; thus the seed to which this little appendage is adherent is kept constantly 

 moving until it is either destroyed by the vicissitudes of weather, or inserted into some 

 tiny nook or crevice of earth, where it germinates and becomes a fresh plant. 



SPECIES II.— E RODIUM MOSCHATUM, VHerit. 



Plate CCCVIII. 

 Reich Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. V. Geran. Tab. CLXXXIV. Fig. 4807. 



Leaves all pinnate, with the pinnse sub-sessile, ovate, irregu- 

 larly cut and coarsely serrate at the margins. Stipules broadly 

 ovate, obtuse, sometimes apiculate. Peduncles 3- to 10-flowered. 

 Bracts at the base of the pedicels ovate, rounded, and sometimes 

 apiculate at the apex. Petals about as long as the sepals. 

 Filaments of the fertile stamens winged on each side for about 

 half their length from the base, the enlarged portion terminating 

 in a tooth on each side ; sterile stamens linear- lanceolate. Carpels 

 hairy, with a deep circular depression at the apex on each side, the 

 depression with a few glands and surrounded by a raised margin, 

 beyond which there is a very deep curved concentric furrow on the 

 basal side. 



In waste places and by roadsides. Rare and probably only 

 truly wild in the South-West of England and in Ireland, though it 

 has been recorded as far North as near Scarborough, Yorkshire, 

 and in Anglesea. I have myself gathered it only in the Channel 

 Islands, where is abundant. 



England, Ireland. Annual or Biennial. Spring to Autumn. 



E. moschatum bears considerable resemblance to E. cicutarium, 

 but is a larger and coarser plant, with the stems much thicker, 

 the leaves with fewer and larger leaflets much less deeply divided ; 

 the flowers smaller, pale purjilish-rose or nearly white ; the stipules 

 very much larger and not at all acuminate or cuspidate at the apex ; 

 the sepals more elliptical, terminating in a short awn, which has 

 rarely white hairs at the apex ; the fruit larger, 1^ to 2 inches long ; 

 the seeds with a deeper depression and a much deeper furrow, both 

 of which have a few small scattered sessile glands ; the hairs 

 shorter and more glandular. The strongly toothed base of the 

 fertile stamens affords an unmistakable character. 



3Iusk StorlvS Bill. 



French, £rodie Musquee. German, Bisamduftender Reiherscknabel. 



