94 



GERANIACE^. Geranium. 



About 100 species are found distributed through the temperate regions of both hemispheres, of 

 which only 7 or 8 are found in North America. 



* Annual or biennial : flowers small. 



1. G. Carolinianum, Linn. Decumbent or ascending, diffusely branclied, pu- 

 bescent : leaves 1 to 2^ inches in diameter, palmately 5 - 7-parted, the divisions 

 cleft into oblong-linear lobes : pedicels short or frequently slender and more or less 

 elongated : petals rose-colored, equalling the awned sepals, 2 or 3 lin«s long : carpels 

 hairy, 1| to 2| 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 : flowers large : stems naJced heloiv, dicliotomously branched above. 



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

 usually line and appressed, or somewhat glandular and spreading npon 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. — 6'. albiflorum, 

 Hook. n. i. 116, t. 40, & Bot. Mag. t. 3124 ; not of Ledebour. 



Bloody Canon by Mono Lake, Brewer. Abundant eastward in the watered canons of Nevada 

 and Utah, and in the Rocky Mountains from British America to New Mexico. 



3. Gr. incisum, Xutt. Closely resembling the last, but more villous and gland- 

 ular-pubescent ; leaves rather more narrowly and laciniately cut : sepals 5 or 6 lines 

 long : petals usually deep-purple : carpels with the beak 1| inches long. — G. albi- 

 flwnm, var. (1) incisum, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 206. G. erianthum, Lindl. Bot. Eeg. 

 xxviii, t. 52, excl. syn. 



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

 tana and the Saskatchewan. Intennediate fonns between this species and the last appear to 

 occur. 



G CESPITOSUM, James, of the Eocky Mountains and New Mexico, has been collected in Cen- 

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

 diifusely branched, with smaller broadly lobed leaves, finely pubescent. 



2. ERODIUM, L'Her. 

 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 Worid, very widely dispersed. Ours are 

 essentially annuals. 



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

 1. E. Cicutarium, L'Her. Hairy, much branched from the base : leaves pin- 

 nate, the leaflets laciniately pinnatifid with narrow acute lobes ; stipules mostly 

 small : peduncles exceeding the leaves, bearing a 4 - 8-flowered umbel : sepals 1 

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

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



Yery common throughout the State, extending to British Columbia, New Mexico, and Mexico; 

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

 sidered an introduced species, but it is more decidedly and widely at home throughout tlie 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 Alfilarm, 



