5G FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Geraniacea. 
Nat. Ord. XX. GERANIACEiE, Juss. 
Germiacea is a very large and widely diffused Natural Order, being however far more abundant in 
South Africa than in any other part of the globe. There are few Australian species but those described 
below as Tasmanian also. 
Gen. I. GEEANIUM, Jim. 
Sepala etpetala 5, jequalia. Stamina 10, fertilia alterna majora, basi glandulis instructa. Carpellorum 
aristas intus glabra?, elastice e basi ad axeos apicem circinatim revolutas.— Herbse v. suffruticuli ; foliis 
stijoulatis. 
A very widely diffused genus, common in all temperate and warm quarters of the globe, and particularly 
abundant in South Africa. There are very few Australian species, and none that appear to differ remarkably from 
the Tasmanian ones. After a very long and careful study of the Tasmanian forms of this genus, I find myself quite 
unable to draw up any good specific characters for them; the amount and kind of hairiness of stem, peduncles, 
petioles, and leaves, the number, depth, and breadth of the lobes of the leaf, the number of flowers on each pe- 
duncle (one to three), the size of the flower, the characters of the sepals, petals, and carpels, and, finally, the habit, 
all seem to present interminable variations. Under these circumstances I retain the species as hitherto proposed, 
and caution the student that they are provisional only. I am much guided in ray division by Gunn's numbers and 
notes.— Flowers regular. Sepals and petals five. Stamens ten, five fertile ; filaments of the alternate ones longer, 
with glands at the base. Carpels five, their awns rolling back elasticaUy from a central axis, becoming spirally 
twisted, glabrous on the inner face. (Name from yepavos, a crane; in allusion to the beak of the carpels.) 
1. Geranium dissectxun (Linn. Sp. PI. 956) ; caule decumbente v. suberecto patentim v. retrorsum 
piloso rarius glabrato, foliis rotundatis 5-7-partitis lobatisve laciniis linearibus dissectis obtusis apiculatis 
acutisve, pedunculis bifloris, sepalis pilosis aristatis, petalis calyce brevioribus v. rarius longioribus emar- 
ginatis, capsulis lsevibus pilosis, seminibus reticulatim punctatis. — Fl. N. Zeal. i. 39. 
Yar. /3. pilosum; pilis patentibus.— Fl. N. Zeal. i. 39. G. pilosum, Forst. Prodr. 531 ; DC. Prodr. 
i. 642 ; Sweet, Geran. ii. 119 ; Nees in Plant. Preiss. ii. 162 ; Hoot Journ. Pot. ii. 415. {Gunn, 259 ?) 
Yar. 7. retrorsum; robustior, pilis retrorsis. — Fl. N. Zeal. i. 39. G. retrorsum, If Her. MSS. in DC. 
Prodr. i. 644. {Gunn, 789.) 
Yar. S. glabratum ; foliis 3-5-lobis, lobis late cuneatis 3-5-fidis.— Fl. N. Zeal. I. c. 
Hab. Common throughout the Island in many situations. Yar. 7. Circular Head, etc., Gunn. — (FL 
all summer.) 
Disteib. Yar. /3, 7, and 8. New Zealand, New South Wales, and South-eastern and Western Aus- 
In the New Zealand Flora I have detailed the differences between the Australian and the European and North 
American forms of tins species ; it is a very common weed, extremely variable in stature and habit, but generally 
easily recognized by the lobed leaves, spreading or recurved hairs, and deep red small petals. Var. retrorsum is 
coarser and more robust than vars. pilosum or glabratum, and is covered with white retrorse hairs. — Stems 2-3 
feet high, much branched, suberect. Leaves 1-2 inches across, with sharp lobes, hispid-pilose. Peduncles shorter 
than the petioles, two-flowered; peduncles and pedicels hispid, with spreading hairs. Sepals ovate-acuminate, 
hispid, as are the young carpels. Petals red-purple, scarcely longer than the sepals. Capsules and seeds not 
seen ; the latter, in New Zealand specimens, are reticulated with impressed dots. — The var. pilosum is very similar, 
but has fewer and more patent hairs ; it is undistinguishable from some states of G. potentilloides : the lobes of 
its leaves are blunt or truncate, rarely acute. 
