8 NAT f 'H AL HI STORY OF PLANTS. 



ones. They are oftener more like the anterior petal in size and 

 colom-, enveloped by them in prtefloration, but which, being 

 situated on the medial line of the flower, has its two halves sym- 

 metrical 1 (fig. 16). The androceum is formed of ten stamens united 

 for a variable distance at their base, and disposed on two verticels. 

 As a rule, seven of them are fertile and provided with a bilocular 

 introrse anther, dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts. These are the 

 five stamens superposed to the sepals and the two superposed to the 

 posterior petals. The three others, or a larger number, are reduced 

 to filaments sometimes very short or scarcely visible. The number 

 of fertile stamens may be not more than five or three. The gynteceum 

 is quite that of the Geraniums,^ as are also the fruit and seeds in 

 which the albumen is generally wanting or reduced to a thin 

 membrane. Fdargonium consists of shrubs, uudershrubs and herbs, 

 whose organs are often charged with glandiilar capitate hairs, viscous 

 and aromatic. The leaves, alternate or opposite, and the inflorescences 

 are the same as in Geranium. More than three hundred species 

 have been described, almost all natives of central Afiiea. But the 

 number of admitted species is considerably reduced and this region 

 only really possesses about a hundred and fifty.^ There arc three 

 or four in Korth and East Africa,^ and nearly as many in Australia 

 and New Zealand.* A certain number of distinct genera have been 

 formed of them which are now rightly reduced to sections, the 

 characters being drawn from the stems, leaves and flowers.^ 



1 This petal may lie quite wanting or very distributed this genus into 15 sections, adopted 

 small. The lateral petals are rarely wanting, by Benth. and Hook : 



but they may be very small, reduced to narrow 1. Himna (Sweet, Gei-aii. t. 18). Herbte 



toQgues, hidden by the sepals. aeaul. rhizom. tuberose, pctalis 4, 5 {Dimacria 



2 Ait. Hurt. Keu: ii. 417.— jAca. Ic. Rat: t. Sweet, t. 46 ■,—Gmn!lca Sweet, sub. t. 262). 

 610-521.— Jacq. f. Ed. t. 97.— Gav. Diss. t. 97- 2. Sej/mnnria (Sweet, t. 206). Herb, acaul. 

 123 {Qeritiiium). — Hakv. et Sond. Fl. Cup. i. rhizom. tuberose, pet.al. 2. 



259.— W alp. An», iv. 397 ; vii. 488. 3. Pohjactinm (DC. ; -Eckl. et Zeyh. Einim. 



3 Fenzl, in Russeij. Uih. t. 3.— Boiss. Fl. Or. 05). Herb, caulesc. rhiz. tuber, fol. lobat. v. 

 i. 898. — Bot. Mtiff. t. 494G.— Wali'. Jiep. ii. pinnatim decomp. infloresc. x -floris, petal, sub. 

 820 ; Ami. ii. 237. œqual. obovat. integr. v. lacer. {Poli/schisma 



^ Hook. f. Fl. N.-Zcl. i. 41 ; Fl. Tasm. i. 57. Tukcz. in Hull. Mose. (1859, i. 269). 



— HuEG. in But. Arcli. t. 5.— Nees, in PI. Fichs. 4. Otiilia (Sweet, t. 98). Caul, succul. nodos. 



i. 163. — F. MuELL. Fl. Tict. i. 170, t. suppl. ii. fol. carnos. pinnat. v. 2-pinnat. petal, subaiqual. 



Tuucz. in Bull. Mosc. (1858), i. 149, 421.— basi aurieulatis. 



Benth. J'/. ^»s<(W. i. 298. 5. i(>«/ffnrt (Eckl. et Zeyu. 69). Caul, suc- 



* Harvey [Fl. Cap. i. 260) has in this way oui. v. tenuis rainos., fol. raro intogr. sœpius mul- 



