crane's-bill family 



[03 



14. G. Rohertidniun (Herb Robert). — One of the most generally 

 diffused and best known species, well distinguished by its red, 

 hairy, succulent, spreading stems ; ternately or quinately divided 

 leaves with pinnatifid segments, acquiring in autumn the same red- 

 dish hue ; and bright pink elegantly-veinedy?^7£/e'r^ \ in. across, with 

 long, pointed sepals, viscid with glandular hairs, and obovate, 

 entire petals. There is a white-flowered variety. The whole 

 plant has a strong smell. — Hedgerows and waste ground ; very 

 common. — Fl. all the summer. Annual. 



2. Erodium (Stork's-bill). — Herbs with swollen nodes ; leaves 

 stipulate ; flowers on i — many- 

 flowered axillary peduncles ;/^/<i;/j 

 rather unequal, sometimes defi- 

 cient ; sfanmis 5, with alternating 

 staminodes, with glands at the 

 base of the former ; styles persist- 

 ing as spirally twisted awns 

 furnished with long elastic bristles 

 on the inner side.^ (Name from 

 the Greek erodios, a stork, from 

 the beaked fruit.) 



1. E. cicutdriiim (Hemlock 

 Stork's-bill). — Stems prostrate, 

 hairy; leaves bi-pinnatifid, with 

 lanceolate stipules ; . peduncles 

 many-flowered ; flo7vers in umbel- 

 late cymes, rosy or white ; petals 

 entire, rather unequal, two often 

 spotted at the base, fugacious. — 

 Waste places, especially near 

 the sea ; common. — Fl. all the 

 summer. Annual. 



2. E. moschdtum (Musk Stork's- 

 bill). — A larger and stouter 

 species, of a deeper green, covered 

 with spreading hairs, somewhat 

 clammy to the touch, and emit- 

 ting, when handled, a strong scent 

 of musk ; leaves less deeply cut, 



1 These awns, which become spirally twisted when ripe, often spring to a considerable 

 distance from the parent plant. Being hygroscopic they uncurl when moistened. The com- 

 bined action of the awn and the bristles on it thus gives to the carpel the power of locomo- 

 tion at every change in the moisture surrounding it, and serves to bury the seed-vessel. A 

 twisted carpel, if moistened and laid on a sheet of paper, will soon crawl an inch or more 

 away from the spot on which it was laid. 



ERODIUM CICUxARIUAr 



{Hemlock Stork's-bill). 



