GER 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



GER 



609 



of a fine blue colour. In flowers from June to August. 

 Native of Bohemia. 



32. Geranium llobertianum ; Slinking Crane's Bill, or 

 Herb Robert. Leaves quinate and ternate, gashed; calices 

 ten-angled; stems spreading, branched, blood-red, hairy, par- 

 ticularly in young plants ; stipules four at each joint, two on 

 each side ; peduncles very long ; pedicels short ; calicine 

 leaflets ovate-lanceolate, nerved, hairy, ending in a long awn ; 

 petals rose-coloured, varying to white, spreading, and equal ; 

 the lamina somewhat heart-shaped ; the claw long and linear, 

 the middle part of it prominent, grooved, and spreading into 

 three whitish nerves. The whole is beset with pellucid hairs, 

 but becomes smoother as the plant grows older; it is com- 

 monly red at the joints, and the whole plant is frequently red. 

 It has a disagreeable rank smell when bruised. In the variety 

 of this plant, which occurs near Swanning in Dorsetshire, and 

 on the shore of Selsey island, the whole plant is shining, and 

 the leaves smaller, and more deeply divided. A decoction 

 of this plant has been found to afford relief in the stone and 

 gravel ; it is considerably astringent, and is given to cattle 

 when they make bloody water, or have the bloody flux. This 

 plant, says Meyrick, is an excellent vulnerary or wound herb, 

 whether used externally or internally. An ointment made of 

 the green leaves and hog's lard, is good for sore breasts, and 

 has been found serviceable to anoint scrofulous or cancerous 

 swellings with. Cattle have certainly been cured of what 

 the farmers call the black water, and of the bloody flux, by 

 a decoction of this herb, after all other medicine* have 

 proved ineffectual ; and there is little doubt +mt its effects 

 on the human body would be equally salutary in similar cir- 

 cumstances. The whole plant should be. gathered, root and 

 all, and dried for use; it is a most excellent astringent; 

 scarcely any plant is in that respect equal to it : it may be 

 given dried or powdered, or in decoction." It stops over- 

 riowings of the menses, bloody stools, and all" other heemor- 

 rhages. It is to be observed, that nature seems to have set 

 her stamp upon several herbs, which have the virtue to stop 

 bleedings; this and the Tutsan, the two best remedies the 

 fields arford for outward and inward bleedings, become all 

 over as red as blood at a certain season. The name Stock- 

 bill is set down in Dr. Withering's arrangements ; which is 

 probably a corruption of storkbill. Native of all parts of 

 Europe, in woods, under hedges, in hollow trees, on walls, 

 and the roofs of houses, among rubbish, and in stony places, 

 flowering from April through the whole of the summer. 



Geranium. See Erodium, and Pelargonium. 



Gerardia ; (so called, in honour of John Geratde, the ce- 

 lebrated English botanist,) a grenus of the class Didynamia, 

 order Angiospermia. GENERIC CIIA.RACTER. Calix : pe- 

 rianth on-j-li-vifed, five-cleft, upright, sharp, permanent. Co. 

 rolla : one-pet-iiled, ringent ;* tube round, longer than the 

 calix ; upper lip upright, blunt, flat, broader, emarginate ; 

 lower lip reflex, three-parted; divisions lateral, emarginate : 

 middle shorter, two-parted. Stamina : filamenta four, scarcely 

 the length of the tube, two a little shorter; anthera small. 

 Pistil: germen ovate, small; style simple, short; stigma 

 blunt. Pericarp: capsule ovate, two-celled, two-valved, 

 gaping at the base ; partition contrary. Seeds : ovate, soli- 

 tary. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five-cleft. Co- 

 rolla: two-lipped; lower lip three-parted; the lobes emargi- 

 nate ; the middle segment two-parted. Capsule : two-celled, 

 gaping. The species are, 



1. Gerardia Tuberosa; Tuberous Gerardia. Leaves sub- 

 ovate, tomentose, repand, the length of the stalk; root-leaves 

 as on the spike; bractes imbricate, one-flowered; border of 

 the corolla wheel-shaped. Native of South America. 

 VOL. i. 51. 



2. Gerardia Japonica; Japanese Gerardia. Leaves ovate, 

 gash-pinnatifid, petioled ; stalk simple; flowers axillary, pe- 

 duncled, solitary; peduncles many times shorter than the 

 leaves; corolla purplish ; stalk villose. Native of Japan. 



3. Gerardia Delphinifolia ; Larkspur- leaved Gerardia. 

 Leaves linear, piunatifid ; stalk somewhat branched ; stem 

 a foot high, obtusely four-cornered, upright, even, with few 

 alternate branches ; flowers axillary, from the middle to the 

 top of the stem, opposite, directed one way, on very short 

 peduncles; corollas oblong, with a gaping mouth, and a 

 five-lobed rounded border, the two upper lobes shorter. 

 Native of the East Indies. 



4. Gerardia Scabra; Rough Gerurdia. Hispid, sca- 

 brous ; leaves oblong, pinnatifid. Native of the Cape of 

 Good Hope. 



5. Gerardia Purpurea; Purple Gerardia. Leaves linear ; 

 root annual; stalks a foot High, filiform, either very simple, 

 or brachiate, smooth; flowers opposite, on one-flowered fili- 

 form peduncles, or else sessile; calices smooth, small, <beH- 

 shaped, five-toothed ; corollas very deep purple, either wheel- 

 shaped or bell-shaped, or tubular. Native of North America. 



6. Gerardia Tubulosa; ong-lubed Gerardia. Smooth: 

 leaves linear, entire, sharp ; tube of the flower longer than 

 the calix. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



7. Gerardia Flava ; Yellow Gerardia. Leaves lanceolate, 

 pinnate-toothed; stalk extremely simple, about a foot high ; 

 spike terminating, lax, consisting of opposite large yellow 

 flowers : there is no fifth stamen. Native of North America. 



8. Gerardia Pedicularia. Leaves oblong, doubly serrate ; 

 stalk panicled ; calices crenate ; corollas pubescent on the 

 outside, oblong, patulous. Native of North America. 



9. Gerardia Glutinosa. Leaves ovate-serrate; bractes 

 linear, hispid ; stem roundish, upright, with short branches ; 

 racemes terminating, solitary, composed of opposite flowers, 

 on very short peduncles ; calices five-parted, sharp, the 

 uppermost division largest ; a filiform bracte or two, of the 

 same length with the calix, is close to it, hispid, like that, 

 with glutinous hairs. Native of China. 



10. Gerardia Nigrina. Scabrous : leaves lanceolate, ser- 

 rate at bottom ; stalk four-cornered. This was formerly 

 made a distinct genus by Linueus, under the name of i\'i- 

 grina, but he was afterwards of opinion that it could not be 

 separated from the Gerardias. Native of the Cape. 



Germander. See Teticrium. 



Geropogon;.& genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 gamia jEqualis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: common, 

 simple, many-leaved; leaflets lanceolate-subulate, keeled, 

 upright, longer than the corolla. Corolla : compound, subim- 

 bricate, uniform ; corollules hermaphrodite, outer as many as 

 there are leaflets in the calix, inner fewer, shorter, proper, 

 one-petalled, ligulate, truncate, five-toothed. Stamina : fila- 

 menta five, very short; antheree cylindric, tubular. Pistil: 

 .germen oblong; style filiform, the same length with the sta- 

 mina; stigmas two, bowed back, filiform. Pericarp: none; 

 calix oblong, upright, gaping. Seeds: of the ray subulate, 

 the same length with the calix ; down with five patulous 

 awns; of the disk subulate, shorter ; down feathered. Re- 

 ceptacle: with bristle-shaped chaffs. Observe: there is a 

 species with a calicled calix. ESSENTIAL CHAKACTMI. 

 Calix: simple. Receptacle: with bristle-shaped chaffs. 

 Seeds: of the disk, with a feathered down ; of the ray, with 

 five awns. For the propagation and culture of this species, 

 see Trayopogon, The species are, 



]. Guropogon Glabruni ; Smooth Geropogon, or Old Man's 

 Beard. Leaves smooth. It has an upright stalk mor than a 

 foot high, with long grass-like leaves ; the stalk branch** a^t 

 7Q 



