GERANIUM FAMILY. Geraniaceas. 



GERANIUM FAMILY. Geraniacece. 



A small family of plants with sj^mmetrical and per- 

 feet flowers of mostly five parts, viz. : five petals, five 

 sepals (usually distinct), and five stamens or twice that 

 number. Fruit a capsule. Cross-fertilized by bees, but- 

 terflies, and the beelike flies. 



A delicate wild flower pale or deep ma- 

 Wild Geranium 



or Cranesbill genta-pmk, or quite light purple ; some- 

 Geranium times the ten anthers are a delicate peacock 

 maculatum blue. The deeply cut, five-lobed leaf is 

 Magenta=pink rou gh-hairy ; the stem and the unfolded 

 flower-envelop (the bud) are also remarka- 

 bly hairy. The blossoms are cross-fertilized mostly by the 

 agency of honeybees, and the smaller bees of the genus 

 Halictus particularly Halictus coriaceus, and the Syr- 

 phid flies. The .flower is, perhaps, quite incapable of 

 self-fertilization in the absence of insects, as the pollen 

 is ripe and the anthers fall away before the stigma 

 is receptive. The leaves with their brown or white 

 spots are the occasion of the specific title, maculatum. 

 1-2 feet high. In woodlands and wooded roadsides, 

 from Me., south to Ga., and west. Found in Camp- 

 ton, N. H. 



A rather handsome and decorative spe- 

 Herb Robert . ., 



Geranium cies adventive from Europe, distinguished 



Robertianum for its generally ruddy stems and strong 

 Magenta odor when bruised. The ornamental leaves 



with 3-5 divisions are deep green some- 

 times modified w^ith the ruddy tinge of 

 the plant. The flowers are deep or pale magenta, and 

 are succeeded by long-beaked seed-vessels. 10-18 inches 

 high. On the borders of rocky woods, from Me., south 

 to N. J., and west to Mo. 



A somewhat similar species, but distin- 



BickneUii guished by its almost skeleton-lobed leaf 



and remarkable seed-vessel the persistent 



style of which splits upward from the base and bears the 



seed at the tip. The flowers are pale magenta, and are 



