138 



flower stalks close to the ground, though creeping along for 

 several inches on every side. The flowers are of the most 

 delicate pink color, several of them upon the same stem. 

 Leaves hairy, pinnate, with the leaflets alternate, sessile, cleft, 

 and irregularly toothed. It is in flower during the Summer 

 months. 



O. S. Musky Stork's-bill and Sea-side Stork's- bill. 



CRANE'S-BILL. GERANIUM. 

 HERB ROBERT. Geranium Robertianum. 



Plate 10, fig. 14. 

 Leaves triangular, twice compound. Calyx hairy. 



One of the most common of English Geraniums also, one 

 of the most elegant ; it trails over the hedges, becoming a 

 much-branched plant, having hairy stems, and opposite leaves 

 with bracts at the base of each, as well as upon the flower 

 stalks, which rise from the axils of the leaves. The flowers 

 are two together, enclosed each in a hairy calyx. Petals pink, 

 and beautifully veined. The plant has a disagreeable smell, is 

 very brittle, and tinged all over with a fine red. 



The wonderful manner in which all of this tribe discharge 

 their seeds is well worth the most attentive observation. The 

 seeds are five to each flower, set round in a circle, and each 

 lying in a cup-shaped vessel, with a long elastic stalk to it. 

 These stalks continue to grow longer and longer, and more 

 and more elastic, while the seed gets riper and looser in the 

 cup, until at length the elastic stalks becoming separated from 

 the centre column to which they are fixed at the top, suddenly 

 fly out, and curling up at the same time, the seed is jerked to 

 the distance of many inches from the parent. In the Plate 

 the seed-vessel is seen after the seed is dispersed, and in the 

 Plate of the next species it is seen when ripening. In the 

 genus Erodium, or Stork's-bill, the awns or stalks become 

 twisted round at the same time that they fly out, and this is 

 almost the only difference between that genus and Geranium, 

 except indeed that the awns of Erodium are bearded on the 

 inner side. The number of stamens is not to be depended upon. 



