Forage Plants of Australia. 13 



ORDER GERANIACE.E. 



GEEANIUM DISSECTUM, 

 " Crane's bill, or Crow's Foot." 



Flora Austr., Vol. 7, p. 296. 



A DIFFUSE perennial plant, with a root stock thick and carrot-like. The 

 stems are usually procumbent ; but are, sometimes, shortly erect, more or 

 less hairy, or hoary, with a minute pubescence. The leaves are arranged on 

 long petioles (stalks), nearly orbicular (round) in their circumspection, 

 deeply divided into five or seven segments, each one again more or less cut 

 into three or more lobes, usually pubescent or hairy underneath. The one 

 or two or rarely three flowered peduncles have small bracts at the base of 

 the pedicles. There are always ten stamens, with the filaments united at 

 the base in each flower. Capsule lobes, one seeded, separating from the 

 placenta-bearing axis, inclosing the seed, and curled upward on a long 

 glabrous awn (the persistent style), detached from the beak, as shown in the 

 engraving. The awns are not spirally twisted as in the allied genus Erodium. 

 This plant is generally distributed over a greater portion of the interior of 

 this continent, and is held in high repute as a superior pasture herb, parti- 

 cularly in the central portions of Australia. Its growth is made principally 

 during the spring and early summer months ; and it affords a rich, succulent 

 herbage, ere the grasses have made much growth. Herbivora of all descrip- 

 tions are remarkably fond of it. The drought-enduring qualities of this 

 plant are remarkable ; but this, in a great measure, may be accounted for 

 by its long, carrot-like roots penetrating the earth to a great depth, thus 

 escaping the drying influence of the summer's sun. When not too closely 

 fed down, the plants produce moderately plentiful seeds, which germinate 

 readily under ordinary conditions. There are only two species of the genus 

 indigenous in Australia, but neither of them is endemic. The species 

 under notice is generally distributed over the temperate regions of the 

 northern hemisphere, and, as might be supposed, is very variable in habit, 

 sometimes appearing only as an annual. In more favorable situations it is 

 biennial, and very often perennial, as is the case with the Australain plant. 

 The seeds should be sown during the early autumn months, after rainfall if 

 possible, or failing this, during September or October. 



