GERANIUM FAMILY. Geraniaceae. 



GERANIUM FAMILY. Geraniaceae. 



Not a large family, herbs, of temperate regions; leaves 

 lobed or compound, usually with stipules; flowers perfect; 

 sepals and petals usually five and stamens five or ten; 

 ovary superior; fruit a capsule. 



There are many kinds of Geranium; stems with swollen 

 joints; stipules papery; five glands on the receptacle, 

 alternating with the petals; stamens ten, five long and 

 five short, filaments united at base; ovary with a beak 

 formed by the five-cleft style, and becoming a capsule, 

 which splits open elastically, the style-divisions becoming 

 tails on the seeds. The Greek name means "crane," in 

 allusion to the long beak of the capsule, and these plants 

 are often called Crane's-bill. Cultivated Geraniums are 

 Pelargoniums, from South Africa. 



In the Sierra woods, and along Yosemite 

 Wild Geranium 



Geranium indsum roadsides, in summer we see the purplish- 

 Pink pink blossoms and nodding buds of this 

 Spring, summer attractive plant, resembling the Wild 

 Geranium of the East, growing from thick, 

 perennial roots, with hairy, branching stems, from one to 

 two feet high. The hairy leaves, with three or five, 

 toothed lobes, are fragrant like cultivated geraniums; the 

 flowers, over an inch across, are hairy inside, the petals 

 veined with magenta. They are occasionally white and 

 the plants vary in size and hairiness. G. furcatum, of the 

 Grand Canyon, has magenta petals, which turn back more. 

 This has similar flowers, but is a finer 

 Wild Geranium ^ f orming large thrifty-looking 

 Geranium r to ; & 



Fremdntii clumps, one or two feet across, of slightly 



Pink thickish leaves, dark green on the upper 



Spring, summer s id e and paler, with prominent veins, on 



Southwest, and th und th roo t-leaves with about 

 Utah, Ida., Col., 



New Mex. seven, main divisions, the stem-leaves 



three- to five-cleft, each clump of leaves 

 with several tall, slightly downy flower-stalks springing 

 from it. The calyxes and buds are downy and the flowers 

 bright pink or rose-purple, delicately veined. This grows 

 in somewhat moist ground, at the edges of fields and 

 woody roadsides and on mountain slopes, and is perhaps 

 the handsomest of its clan. 



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