Geraniacea. | FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 41 
Leaves as in G. potentilloides, but rather larger. Peduncles shorter, stout, bearded below the flower with silky 
patent hairs. Calyæ also silky and hairy. Petals white. Fruit with a stout hairy beak. Capsules hairy; seeds 
quite smooth and even, or minutely punctulate under a high power.—I retain this species mainly on account of its 
perfectly even or scarcely dotted seeds; for in other respects it resembles G. potentilloides, var. microphyllum, fax 
too closely in all characters, except greater size and copious silky hairs on the peduncle, etc. The woody root and 
short stems are both attributable to its place of growth. It is also a native of the mountains of Tasmania. 
Gen. II. PELARGONIUM, Herit. 
Sepala 5, supremo in calcar pedunculo adnatum producto. Petala 4-5, irregularia v. subregularia. 
Filamenta 4-7 fertilia, reliqua sterilia. Rostra introrsum barbata. 
A very large and almost exclusively Cape genus, of which one (and perhaps two) species, also natives of 
that country, inhabit Australia and New Zealand. It closely resembles a Geranium in habit and appearance, dif- 
fering in the irregular flowers, in having a spur which is prolonged from one sepal down the pedicel, and in the 
stamens, of which five are reduced to scales or mere teeth. (Name from medapyos, a stork, because of the beaked 
carpels.) 
1. Pelargonium clandestinum; pilosum v. pubescens, caule erecto simplici v. ramoso, foliis longe petio- 
latis rotundatis profunde cordatis 3-5-lobis crenato-dentatis, pedunculis elongatis fructiferis erectis v. pa- 
tentibus, bracteolis ovatis acuminatis, pedicellis sepalis longioribus, sepalis pubescentibus pilisque raris 
albidis subhispidis, calcare brevi v. obliterato, petalis calyce vix longioribus, capsulis pilosis, seminibus mi- 
nutissime punctato-striatis. Merit. Geran. ined. A. Cunn. Prodr. P. acugnatum, Du Petit Thouars? 
DC. Prodr. Geranium amoenum, Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. 
Has. Northern and Middle Islands; abundant, especially near the sea. Fl. January and February. 
Nat. name, “ Kopata,” Middle Island, Zyall. 
An erect, herbaceous, more or less pilose, Geranium-like plant, very variable in size, 4 inches to 2 feet high. 
Leaves on slender petioles, 2—6 inches long, rounded or ovate, blunt, deeply two-lobed or cordate at the base, three- 
to five-lobed, coarsely or finely crenate or dentate. Peduncles axillary, longer than the leaves, from whose axils they 
spring, pubescent. Flowers small, ten to twelve together; umbels on short pedicels, surrounded at the base by a 
whorl of bracteole ; pedicels 2—6 lines long, pubescent, and, as well as the unequal ovate acuminate sepals, covered 
with scattered short white hairs. Spur short, gibbous, or evanescent. Petals unequal, 14-2 lines long, longer than 
the sepals, narrow, spathulate, notched, deep red. Stamens about five fertile, the rest more or less coalescing into a 
few white membranous scales. Fruit very hairy, the beak recurved (not twisted), lined along the inner surface 
with beautiful long silky hairs. Seeds very minutely dotted.— The natives apply a lotion of this plant bruised for 
burns and scalds. This is also a native of Tasmania, where a small state of it is found, apparently passing into the 
P. australe. The Tristan d’Acunha plant referred to this by De Candolle I have never seen; but as I have exa- 
mined a specimen undistinguishable from the New Zealand one from the Cape of Good Hope (Drege, 7466), there 
would appear no reason to doubt their identity. Of the said Cape plant I have but one specimen, not in fruit: it 
is quite unlike any other species from that country, and if identical with this, it presents a wonderful fact in 
distribution, for except one European, one St. Helena, and one Abyssinian species, this large genus is, I believe, 
quite confined to South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The P. australe of Australia and Tasmania has also 
a Cape of Good Hope representative, and a perhaps identical congener, 
