GERANIUM TRIBE 59 



2. Erodium (Stork' s-bill) 



1. E. cicutarium (Hemlock Stork's-bill). Stems prostrate, 

 hairy ; stalks many-flowered ; leaves pinnate ; leaflets sessile, 

 pinnatifid, cut. A straggling plant, with much the habit of the 

 preceding genus, but distinguished at first sight by its pinnate 

 leaves and umbels of lilac (sometimes white) flowers, the petals 

 of which soon fall off. Waste places, especially near the sea ; 

 common. Fl. all the summer. Annual, though occasionally 

 biennial. 



2. E. moschatum (Musk Stork's-bill). Stems prostrate, hairy, 

 stalks many flowered ; leaves pinnate ; leaflets nearly sessile, un- 

 equally cut ; perfect stamens, toothed at the base. The whole 

 plant much shorter than the last, of a deeper green, somewhat 

 clammy to the touch, and emitting, when handled, a strong scent 

 of musk. Flowers bright magenta. Waste places, especially near 

 the sea. Fl. all the summer. Annual. 



3. E. maritimum (Sea Stork's-bill). Stems prostrate, hairy ; 

 stalks 1 to 3-flowered ; leaves oblong, heart-shaped, variously 

 lobed and notched ; petals minute or wanting. Whole plant 

 roughish with minute hairs, and sending out several leafy stems, 

 which lie remarkably close to the ground ; the leaves are not pinnate 

 as in the other British species, and the flowers are rarely found with 

 petals. Warm places near the sea, not uncommon in the west of 

 England. Like many other seaside plants it is not unfrequently 

 met with in inland mountainous districts, occurring plentifully on 

 Dartmoor, in Devonshire, many miles from the sea. Fl. all the 

 summer. Perennial. 



The beaks attached to the capsules of the stork's-bills become 

 spirally twisted when ripe, often springing to a considerable distance 

 from the parent plant. They are furnished on the inner side with 

 long elastic bristles, and, being hygrometric, uncurl when moist- 

 ened. The combined action of the beak and bristles thus gives to 

 the seed the power of locomotion at every change in the moisture 

 of the atmosphere. A twisted capsule, if moistened and laid on 

 a sheet of paper, will, in its effort to straighten itself, soon crawl an 

 inch or more away from the spot on which it was laid. 



3. Oxalis (Wood Sorrel) 



1. 0. Acetosella (Common Wood Sorrel). Leaves radicle, ternate, 

 hairy ; scape with two bracts about the middle, single flowered ; 

 root creeping, scaly. An elegant little plant, with delicate drooping 

 clover-like leaves, and white or lilac-veined flowers, growing abun- 

 dantly in woods and shady places. The leaves, though not so 

 sensitive as some foreign species, fold together at night. This 

 plant is supposed by many to be the true shamrock which was used 



