Family 1. GERANIACEAE 



By Lenda Tracy Hanks and John Kunkei. Small 



Annual, biennial or perennial herbs, with erect scape-like or diffusely 

 dichotomous stems. Leaves normally opposite, stipulate ; blades toothed, 

 lobed or more or less pinnately, palmately or pedately cleft, parted or divided. 

 Flowers regular, cymose. Calyx of 5 imbricate persistent sepals, each often 

 terminating in a subulate tip, which is occasionally bristle-appendaged. Cor- 

 olla of 5 white or colored deciduous petals. Receptacle with or without 5 

 glands. Androecium of 10, or rarely 5 or fewer, stamens, the filaments united 

 at the base. Gynoecium of 5 carpels, whose styles are adnate to an elongate 

 central column from which they break at maturity ; each carpel with 2 ovules 

 but maturing only one seed. Seed with little endosperm. Embryo with folded 

 incumbent cotyledons. 



Corolla regular ; calyx spurless. 



Carpel-bodies turgid ; carpel-tails (styles) glabrous within, merely recoiling 

 at maturity ; anthers usually 10 (or 5 in Geranium pusilluni). 

 Carpel-bodies deciduous from the styles at maturity, each with 2 fibrous 



appendages near the top ; leaf-blades divided. . 1. Roeertiella. 



Carpel-bodies permanently attached to the styles, unappendaged ; leaf- 

 blades lobed, cleft or parted. 2. Geranium. 

 Carpel-bodies spindle-shaped ; carpel-tails (styles) pubescent within, spirally 



coiled at maturity ; anthers 5. 3. Erodium. 



Corolla irregular; calyx with a spur which is adnate to the pedicel. 4. Pelargonium. 



1. ROBERTIELLA Hanks, gen. nov. 



Robertium Picard, Mem. Soc. Agric. Boulogne II. 1 : 99. 1837. Not Roberlia Scop. 1777. 



Annual tender herbs. Leaves opposite; blades 3-divided, the divisions 1-2-pinnatifid, 

 the terminal division with a stalk-like base. Sepals 5, awn-tipped. Petals S, glabrous, 

 each with a linear claw and an obovate or cuneate blade barel}' longer than the claw. 

 Stamens 10 ; filaments glabrous. Style-column beaked. Stigmas slender. Carpel-bodies 

 deciduous from the styles at maturity, each bearing 2 fibrous appendages near the top. 

 Seeds minutely granular. 



Type species, Geranium Robertianum L. 



1. Robertiella Robertianum (L,.) Hanks. 



Geranium Robertianum I,. Sp. PI. 681. 1753. 

 Geranium inodorum G. Don, Syst. 1 : 721. 1831. 



Stem commonly branched at the base, the branches ascending or decumbent, 1-5.5 dm. 

 long, purplish, pubescent with delicate glandular hairs; leaf-blades angular in outline, the 

 divisions ovate, 1.5-6 cm. long, their teeth or lobes abruptly pointed ; pedicels finely glan- 

 dular-villous ; sepals lanceolate, 6-8.5 mm. long, the tips filiform; petals red-purple, 8-11 

 mm. long, the blades cuneate or obovate; style-column 1-1.5 cm. long, exclusive of the 

 slender subulate beak; carpel-bodies 2.5 mm. long, wrinkled; seeds granular. 



Type locality : Northern Europe. 



Distribution : Nova Scotia to Manitoba, New Jersey, and Missouri ; also in Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa. 



Illustrations : Fl. Dan. pi. 694; Curt. Fl. Lond. 1 : pi. 109; Britt. & Brown, 111. Fl./. 2240. 



2. GERANIUM (Tourn.) L. Sp. PI. 676. 1753. 



Annual or perennial herbs, the rootstocks, when present, terminating in a simple or 

 branched caudex. Leaves opposite ; blades palmately or radially lobed, cleft or parted. 

 Sepals 5, usually awn-tipped, occasionally awnless. Petals 5, often pubescent near the base, 

 Volume 25, Part 1, 1907] 3 



