What is Geranium caespitosum James? 
Gro. E, OsTERHOUT 
From the time when Geranium caespitosum was first published 
in 1825, when geraniums were few, till the present time, when 
they are many, there has been an uncertainty as to what species 
should have the name. 
On July 6, 1820, at about noon, the Long Expedition, of 
which Dr. Edwin P. James was botanist, surgeon and geologist, 
and of which he became historian, went into camp on the bank 
of the South Platte, where it issues from the mountains. This 
is about fifteen miles from Denver, Colorado. Dr. James notes 
in considerable detail the rock formations about the camp. 
“The woodless plain,’”’ he says, “is terminated by a range of 
naked and almost perpendicular rocks, visible at a distance of 
several miles, and resembling a vast wall, parallel to the base of 
the mountains. These rocks are sandstone . . . About the 
sandstone ledges we collected a geranium intermediate between 
the cranes-bill and the herb-robert.’’ I quote from the London 
edition of Dr. James’s “Account” of the Expedition, which 
was published in 1823. At the end of Vol. 11, among the append- 
ed notes, is the following description of the Geranium: ‘‘ Gera- 
nium intermedium, I.—Caespitose, sub-erect, pubescent, spar- 
ingly branched above. Radical leaves reinform deeply 3 cleft. 
The flower is a little larger than that of G. robertianum, and 
similarly coloured, having whitish lines toward the base of the 
corolla.” There is only one Geranium mentioned. It may be 
noticed that the description is short and so indefinite that it 
might be applied to several species of Geranium.” ; 
The critical species of Dr. James’s collection were submitted 
to Dr. John Torrey for examination and publication, and the 
notable and new species were published in 1826, in the Annals 
of the Lyceum of New York, volume 11. On page 173 we haye, 
‘Geranium caespitosum James, in Long’s Exped. ii. p. 3,” and 
the description substantially as quoted above. Dr. Torrey 
remarks: ‘‘There are no specimens of this plant in the collection. 
Found on the sandstone ledges at the base of the Rocky Mount- 
ains.”” Dr. Torrey quotes from the American edition of Dr. 
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