94 GERANIACE^E. Oerauium. 



About 100 si)ecies are foun<l dibtributeil tliiough the teiupeiate regions of both hcniispheres, of 

 which only 7 or 8 are found iu North America. 



* Auuiud or bitnnial : Jhivers small. 



1. G. Carolinianum, 1-inu. Docuiulu'iit or asccudin-,', diirusoly bnmclicd, pu- 

 hoHCDiit ; luiivcw 1 to ~\ iiu'.liiiH in (liuiiiolcr, |iiiliimttily r> - T-purtctl, tliu divisidiia 

 cleft into ublong-linear lohcs : pedicels short or i'lecjuentiy slentler and more or less 

 elongated : petals rose-colured, equalling the awned sejjals, 2 or 3 lines long : carpels 

 hairy, li to 2i lines long, the tails a half to an inch long. 



From Los Angeles to British America and eastward across the continent ; rather common in 

 spring and early summer. 



* * Perennial : Jlowers large : stems naked below, dichotomously branched above. 



2. Qt. Richardsonii, Fischer & Meyer. Stems 1 or 2 feet high : pubescence 

 iisually tine and appressed, or somewhat glandular and spreading upon the pedicels : 

 leaves 2 to 5 inches broad, 5 - 7-cleft nearly to the base ; the rather broad lobes 

 more or less incisely toothed : sepals 3 or 4 lines long, including the awn : petals 

 purple or sometimes white : carpels and beak 12 to 15 lines long. — G. albijlorum, 

 Hook. Fl. i. IIG, t. 40, & Bot. Mag. t. 3124 ; not of Ledebour. 



Hloody Cafton liy Mono Luke, Brewer. Abundant eastward in the watered cations of Nevada 

 and Utah, and in the Rocky Mountains from IJritisli America to Now Mexico. 



3. G. incisum, Nutt. (Mosoly resembling tiie last, but more villous and gland- 

 ular-pubescent ; leaves rather more narrowly and laciniately cut : sepals 5 or C lines 

 long : petals usually deei)-purple : carpels with the beak 1 J inches long. — G. albi- 

 jlorum, var. (?) incisuvi, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 20G. G. eriantlncin, Lindl. Bot. Eeg. 

 xxviii, t. 52, excl. syn. 



Yosemite Valley (Brewer) ; Sierra Co. (Levunmi) ; northward to the British boundary, Mon- 

 tana and the Saskatchewan. Intcrmeiliate forms between this species and the last appear to 

 occur. 



G. OiKSvrrosTiM, James, of the Rocky Mountains and New Mexico, has been collected in Cen- 

 tral Arizona and may perhaps leach the borders of California. It is more slender and more 

 diffusely branched, witli smaller broadly lobcd loaves, finely pubescent. 



2. ERODIUM, L'ller. 

 Characters as in the last ; but with the filaments dilated, the 5 opposite to the 

 petals sterile and scale-like ; carpels closed, obconical, attenuate to an acute horny 

 bearded base ; the tails long- bearded on the inner side and becoming spirally 

 twisted. — Leaves commonly pinnate and bipinnately parted or lobed : peduncles 

 terminal or lateral, umbellately 2 - several-flowered, with a 4-bracted involucre at 

 the base of the pedicels ; petals small. 



A genus of perhaps 50 species, mostly of the Old World, very widely dispersed. Ours are 

 essentially annuals. 



* Leaves pinnate or pinnatijld, the divisions lobed or toothed. All introduced ? 



1. E. Cicutarium, L'ller. llniry, nnich branched from the base: leaves pin- 

 nate, the Iciallets laciniately jtinimtilid with narrow ac\ito lobes ; stipules mostly 

 small : peduncles exceeding the leaves, hearing a 4 - 8-llowered umbel : sepals 1 

 to 3 lines long, acute : ])etals bright rose-color, a little longer : tails of the carpels 

 1 or 2 inches long : pedicels slender, at length reflexed, the fruit still erect. 



Very common throughout tlie State, extending to Britisli Columbia, New Mexico, and Mexico; 

 also widely distributed in South America and the Eastern Continent. It has been geiicially con- 

 sidered an introduced species, but it is more decidedly and widely at home throughout the in- 

 terior than any other introduced plant, and according to much testimony it was as common 

 throughout California early in the present century as now. It is popularly known as Alfilaria, 



