160 GERANIACE.E 



of the former species. The flowers are on short stalks, so that, as Mr. Curtis 

 remarks, they seem sitting among the leaves. They are rose-coloured, and 

 may be found all the summer on hedge-banks, pastures, and waste places, 

 where the soil is of gravel. 



13. Long-stalked Crane's-bill {G. columhinum). — Stems spreading, 

 hairy, with short hairs ; leaves 5-lobed, the lobes cut into long, narrow, acute 

 segments ; flower-stalks very long ; sepals with long awns ; capsules smooth. 

 Plant annual. This graceful plant is not very common, and its flowers at 

 once distinguish it from all the rest of the species. These are in bloom from 

 June to August, and are placed on slender stalks, often longer than one's 

 finger, and hardly thicker than a packthread. The flower is larger than that 

 of any of the four species last described, and is a rich, reddish, erect, purple 

 bell, sometimes in fine specimens almost as large as that of the large stitch- 

 wort. The stem is procumbent, and the capsules have occasionally a few 

 hairs scattered upon them, but are generally smooth. 



2. Stork's-bill {Erddium). 



1. Hemlock Stork's-bill {E. cieutdrium). — Stems prostrate, hairy; 

 stalks many -flowered ; leaves pinnate ; leaflets sessile, pinnatifid, and cut. 

 Plant annual. This is a very pretty flower, and one also which is common 

 on waste places. It grows very often near the sea, and in salt marshes. It 

 might at first sight be taken for one of the crane's-bills, but no species of 

 that genus has the pinnate leaves which characterize our present plant. Its 

 flowers, which grow in umbels, are of a delicate lilac tint ; and they are to 

 be seen on the plant throughout the summer, but the petals are very frail, 

 and easily scattered by the wind. 



2 Musky Stork's-bill {E. mosclidtum). — Stems prostrate, hairy ; stalks 

 many-flowered ; leaves pinnate ; leaflets nearly sessile, and cut ; perfect 

 stamens, toothed at the base. Plant annual. This species is much larger 

 and handsomer than the last, and its flowers are of deeper purple. Like the 

 Hemlock Stork's-bill, it is common near the sea, and seems more luxuriant 

 there than elsewhere. The foliage is deep green, somewhat clammy, and 

 when passed through the hand leaves a pleasant musk-like odour, which the 

 author has observed to be more powerful in the evening than during day, 

 and which also seems stronger in the plant when cultivated, as it often is, 

 in gardens. It grows in waste places, and flowers all the summer, but is 

 not frequent. It is often called Heron's-bill. Its juice has sometimes been 

 employed as an aromatic bitter. 



Mr. Mallet, of Dublin, was apparently the first to give a full account of 

 the curious movements of the seed-vessel of this plant, a peculiarity now 

 well known to botanists. This gentleman, in 1836, observed in the Stork's- 

 bill one of those wondrous and interesting modes of the dispersion of seeds 

 which exhibit themselves variously in plants, and which are destined to make 

 the surface of the earth a scene of beauty and grace, as well as to supply an 

 abundant source of vegetable food to man and animals. It was on a cultivated 

 plant of this species that Mr. Mallet made his observations ; and having, as 

 he said, looked into many books, and found no mention of the circumstance, 

 he resolved to state his account of it in a scientific journal of that time. 



