THE ART ALBUM OF NHW ZEALAND FLORA. 



71 



GENUS I. 

 GERANIUM {Linn.) The Crane's-hill. 



Generic Character. — Stemless or branching lierbs, 

 with stipuhvte leaves and axillary, l-2-flo»-ered, 2-bracteolate 

 ]iediincles. Flowers, regular. Torus with 5 glands alternating 

 with the petals. Stamens, 10, all perfect (rarely 5, imperfect), 

 free or united at the base. Ovary, 5-celled, beaked ; beak 



terminated by 5 short styles, wliicli are longitudinally 

 stigmatose ; cells, 2-ovuled. Capsule of 5, tailed, 1 -seeded 

 cocci, elastically curling up, and separating from the axis, to 

 which their tails remain attached. Cotyledons, plicate or 

 convolute. — llandhuok of Ike New Zealand Flora, p. 35. 



Description, etc. — A large genus, the type of the order, indigenous to Britain and 

 all temperate regions of the globe. Some of the handsomest are British species, which 

 are well worth cultivating, and are often seen in gardens. The greenhouse plants usually 

 called geraniums are now removed to the genus Felargonimn, from a very trifling 

 difference in the calyx. The other differences are scarcely worth naming, except that in 

 the geraniums the petals, which are large and roundish, are all equal ; and in pelargoniums 

 they are unequal, the iipper two being larger than the rest. The species of true geranium 

 are mostly hardy or greenhouse perennials. All of the New Zealand species are biennial 

 or perennial-rooted, and the roots possess astringent qualities. They are : — (1.) Geranium 

 dissectum : Pedimcles, 2-flowered, pink ; sepals, awned ; carpels, hairy ; seeds, pitted. 

 (2.) G. microphyllmn : Peduncles, 1-flowered, white or pale pink; sepals, hai'dly awned ; 

 car2:)els, hairy ; seeds, scai'cely dotted. (3.) G. sessUiflonim : Peduncles, 2-flowered, 

 pink ; sepals, awned ; carjjcls, hairy ; seeds, quite even ; stemless. (4.) G. molle : 

 Peduncles, 2-flowered, pink ; sepals, not awned ; carpels, glabrous ; seeds, smooth. (5.) 

 G. Ti'aversii : Peduncles, 1-flowered ; sepals, broadly ovate, cusjiidate and silky. The 

 name " Geranium " is said to be derived from the Greek word " geranos," a crane, in 

 allusion to the long beak of the fruit bearing a resemblance to the head of that bird. 



1. GERANIUM DISSECTUM {Linn.) The Cut-leaved Geranium (var. Carol in km nm.) 



Specific Character. — Stem, 1-2 ft. high, stout, erect or 

 decumbent, branched more or less, covered witli spreading, 

 usually retrorse, hairs. Leaves, 1-2 in. diam., on long petioles, 

 orbicular, deeply cut into few or many broad, or narrow, 

 obtuse or acute lobes ; stijiules broad, scarious. Peduncles 



slender, 2-flowered, with ovate, subulate bracts. Flowers very 

 variable in size, i-f in. diam. Sepals hairy, awned. Petals 

 notched or retuse, jiink. Carpels and their beaks hairy, even. 

 Seeds deeply and coarsely pitted. — Handbook of the New 

 Zealand Flora, p. 3G. 



Description.— Fig. 1, Plate No. 10.— The " MATUAKUMARA."— This plant is 

 abundant throughout both Islands, and is also indigenous to the Continent of America, 

 from Canada to Cape Horn. It is described in the North American Floras as annual or 

 biennial. The talented compiler of the "Handbook''' remarks that the roots seem 

 annual in Canadian and United States specimens, but j)erennial in Western North 

 America, Rocky Mountains, and Chilian ones. The petals, also, which are as short as 

 the sepals in the United States form, become larger in the Western American . The New 

 Zealand form differs from the European G. dissectum, chiefly in the petals l)eing often 



