HERB-ROBERT. 105 



reddish hue, brittle and shining. The leaves are opposite, petio- 

 late, three and five-parted, with trifid, pinnatifid leaflets, the 

 segments shortly niucronate, tinged with red, shining, and 

 sprinkled with whitish hairs ; the stipulas short, acute, enlarged 

 at the base. The flowers are axillary, two together on a bifid 

 peduncle, longer than the petioles. The calyx is hairy, striated, 

 angular, ventricose, composed of five lanceolate, mucronate sepals, 

 of a reddish hue. The corolla is of a bright roseate purple colour, 

 streaked with white lines, and consists of five regular, entire, 

 oblong, spreading petals, twice as long as the calyx. The sta- 

 mens are ten, the filaments united at the base, five alternately 

 shorter, with elliptical two-celled anthers ; at the base of the 

 longer filaments are five nectariferous glands. The germen is 

 roundish, five-lobed, with a subvdate style, and five cylindrical, 

 recurved stigmas. The capsules or carpels, five in number, are 

 reticulated and wrinkled in their upper half, and furnished with 

 long naked awns, separating in a spiral manner from the base 

 to the apex of the common axis ; each containing an oblong, 

 smooth seed. Plate 25, fig. 3, (a) calyx, stamens, and pistils ; 

 (6) petal ; (c) tube of the stamens opened ; (d) the five capsules 

 separating from the common axis ; (e) one of the capsules or 

 carpels. 



This plant is frequent in woods, thickets, and waste ground, 

 on old walls, and among stones, and the debris of rocks. A 

 small variety is common by the sea-side, and it is sometimes 

 found with white flowers. It flowers from the end of x\pril to 

 October. 



The name of the genus, the yspaviov of the Greeks, is derived 

 from yspocvos, a crane, in allusion to the shape of the fruit, which 

 has some resemblance to the beak of that bird. This species 

 was named Herb-Robert from its coming into flower about St. 

 Robert's day *, the 29th of April. 



There are about thirteen native species of Geranium, of which 

 the one here figured is perhaps the most common. The culti- 

 vated Geraniums form a distinct genus. Pelargonium. 



Qualities and general Uses. — Herb-Robert has been employed iii 

 some parts of the continent, in the process of tanning, and a yellow dve, it 



* St. Robert flourished in the eleventh century ; he was the founder ol 

 the Cistercians. 



