MALVACEAE — GERANIACE^E 373 



A. striatum var. Thompsonii, Veitch. Spotted flowering maple. 

 Shrub: leaves 3-5-lobed but more typically 5-7-lobed, green: flowers 

 drooping, on long solitary axillary peduncles, bell-shaped, veiny-orange or 

 red. A conservatory and house plant. Several forms are in cultivation, 

 probably cultural variations from the tropical American type. 



A. Theophrasti, Medic. Velvet leaf. Indian mallow. Stout 

 annual, 3 or 4 ft., densely pubescent: flowers yellow, erect, on 

 peduncles shorter than the long petioles: leaves large, roundish 

 heart-shaped, taper-pointed, and velvety: calyx 5-cleft; carpels 

 12-15, united, pubescent, beaked, 2-valved, with 3-9 seeds in. 

 each cell. August to October. Weed, from Asia. 



4. HIBISCUS. Rose Mallow. 



Herbs or shrubs, with an involucre of many narrow 520. Garden 

 bracts: stamen-column anther-bearing most of its length: 

 styles, 5, united: pod 5-loculed, loculicidal: flowers large and showy. 



H. syriacus, Linn. Althea of cultivated grounds. Rose of Sharon. 

 Shrub 10 ft.: leaves wedge-ovate and 3-lobed: flowers showy, in various 

 colors, in the leaf-axils in summer and fall, often double. Asia. 



XXV. GERANIACE.E. Geranium Family. 



Herbs, chiefly with simple leaves: flowers perfect, in most genera 

 nearly regular (but sometimes very irregular), 5-merous; stamens as 

 many or twice as many as the sepals, hypogynous; ovary single, the 

 locules usually as many as the sepals: fruit capsular. A most diverse 

 family, often divided into several. There are about 20 genera and 700 

 species. Common examples are geranium, pelargonium, nasturtium, 

 balsam, jewel-weed or touch-me-not, oxalis. 

 A. Flowers regular or very nearly so. 

 B. Leaves simple (often deeply lobed). 



c. Anther-bearing stamens 10 1. Geranium 



cc. Anther-bearing stamens about 7 2. Pelargonium 



bb. Leaves compound 3. Oxalis 



aa. Flowers very irregular. 



B. Flower with one very long spur 4. Tropseolum 



bb. Flower hanging by its middle, with a short hooked spur.5. Impatiens 



1. GERANIUM. Cranesbill. 



Small herbs with forking stems and 1-3-flowered peduncles: sepals and 

 petals 5; glands on the torus 5, alternating with the petals; stamens 10, 

 usually all of them with perfect anthers: fruit 5 1-seeded carpels separat- 

 ing from the axis from the base upwards and curling outwards. 



G. maculatum, Linn. Common wild cranesbill. Fig. 195. Perennial, 1-2 

 ft., hairy erect: leaves orbicular, deeply 5-7-parted: petals entire, hairy 

 on the claw: flower rose-purple, 1 in. across. Common; spring. 



