GERANIUM. 85 



the stem bears a pair of opposite leaves and divides or forks 

 into branches. Botanists call the joints nodes, and the 

 portion of stem intervening between the nodes, internodes. 

 In Geranium the nodes are conspicuously swollen. In 

 most other plants they are slightly swollen and bear but 

 one leaf. 



The Z,eaves are palmi-veined, and palmately 5 or 7-lobed, 

 the lobes cuneate below and cleft above. Each petiole is 

 furnished with a pair of narrow, acuminate stipules at the 

 base. 



The 1? towers, regular and symmetrical, are an inch 

 broad and 5-parted throughout. The green sepals are 

 3-veined, and awn-pointed ; the petals obovate, bearded at 

 the base on the short claw (unguis); the stamens ten (2), 

 alternately a longer and a shorter one, with the anthers ver- 

 satile, i. e., balanced on the tip of the filament ; the pistils 

 5 cohering into one (3).* The torus is remarkable. It 

 bears 5 glands alternating with the petals, and supports a 

 central column rising in the midst of the styles to their top. 

 It is the carpophore, or fruit-bearer (6, c). 



The J^ruit (6) is a regma (fracture), so named from its 

 curious behavior. The entire compound pistil persists, 

 grows into a slender column (b) having the 5 ovaries at the 

 base. When fully ripe, it breaks up into its 5 constituent 

 carpels, and each carpel is then borne upward on its recurv- 

 ing elastic style, which still remains attached to the top of 

 the carpophore. In this position it is inverted, and its black 

 dotted seed (7) drops out. 



* It has often been observed that the stamens of this plant mature sooner than 

 their pistil. When the flower first opens, the style is short and the 5 stigmas close up 

 as seen in Cut 2. After the anthers have shed their pollen, then the stigmas arise 

 and spread out ready, but too late to receive it. Now they must get their supply from 

 other and later blossoms. Such flowers are called proterandrous (Note, p. 82). Cross- 

 fertilization is evidently the end of this arrangement. 



