Magenta to Pink 



Herb Robert; Red Robin; Red Shanks; 



Dragon's Blood 



{Geranium Robertianum) Geranium family 



Flowers — Purplish rose, about % in. across, borne chiefly in pairs on 

 slender peduncles. Five sepals and petals ; stamens io; pistil 

 with 5 styles. Stem : Weak, slender, much branched, forked, 

 and spreading, slightly hairy, 6 to 18 in. high. Lea 

 Strongly scented, opposite, thin, of 3 divisions, much sub- 

 divided and cleft. Fruit: Capsular, elastic, the beak 1 in. 

 long, awn-pointed. 



Per/erred Habitat — Rocky, moist woods and shady roadsides. 



Flowering Seaso n — May — October. 



Distribution — Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania, and westward to Mis- 

 souri. 



Who was the Robert for whom this his "holy herb" was 

 named? Many suppose that he was St. Robert, a Benedictine 

 monk, to whom the twenty-ninth of April — the day the plant 

 comes into flower in Europe — is dedicated. Others assert that 

 Robert Duke of Normandy, for whom the " Ortus Sanitatis," a 

 standard medical guide for some hundred of years, was written, 

 is the man honored ; and since there is now no way of deciding 

 the mooted question, we may take our choice. 



Only when the stems are young are they green ; later the 

 plant well earns the name of red shanks, and when its leaves show 

 crimson stains, of dragon's blood. 



At any time the herb gives forth a disagreeable odor, but 

 especially when its leaves and stem have been crushed until they 

 emit a resinous secretion once an alleged cure for the plague. 

 Flies, that never object to a noxious smell, constantly visit the 

 flower, and have their tongues guided through passages between 

 little ridge-like processes on each petal to the nectar secreted by 

 the base of the filaments at the base of each sepal. To prevent 

 self-fertilization, the five stigmas are folded close together when 

 the flower opens, nor do they spread apart and become receptive 

 until after the outer row of anthers, then the inner row, have shed 

 their pollen. When the elastic carpels haw ripened their seed. 

 bang ! go the little guns, scattering them far and wide. 



White or True Wood-sorrel; Alleluia 

 (Oxalis acetosella) Wood-sorrel family 



Flowers — White or delicate pink, veined with deep pink, about '.• 

 in. long. Five sepals; =, spreading petals rounded at tips: in 

 107 



