380 The Heron- Bills of Yorkshire. 



Erodium ' is not type ' moschatum ' of L'Heritier, but either 

 an undescribed ' species,' or an inodorous grec of the perfume- 

 glanded growth. I mention it — to be careful — as pseudo- 

 moschatum provisionally, and with deference to those sys- 

 tematists who may have monographed the genus, but with 

 whose work a country panel-surgeon can claim but slight 

 acquaintance. 



The numbers after the name refer to G. C. Druce's ' List 

 of British Plants ' (H. Frowde, Oxford, 1908 — an invaluable 

 ' First Aid ' to the ' simplest ') and to J. C. Loudon's useful 

 though ancient Encyclopaedia of Plants with its First Supple- 

 ment (1841) and its close upon 10,000 neat, though little outline 

 illustrations. Honore Ardoino's Flore des Alpes Maritimes 

 (1879), and H. Correvon's Flore de Poche Touriste (1894), 

 Clarence Bicknell's Flora of Bordighera and San Remo (1896), 

 and two or three more recondite plant-catalogue Notes, have 

 been consulted, including (of course) Druce's Hayward — 

 multum-in-parvo and almagest in one, on its topic ! — and the 

 two Hookers (W. J. and J. D.) Student's Classics of the dates 

 1850 and 1884 for the British Islands. 



Erodium L'Heritier. 

 (Gk. herodios, a heron). 



[E. maritimum L'Her. 493 Oxf. List. — Leaves radical, not 

 segmented, ovate with irregular toothing ; neat squat habit ; 

 petals minute or nil. Only once seen inland ; it probably does 

 not grow on the lands whence the animals imported, as pelts, 

 feed]. 



E. malvacoides (L) Allioni, 491 O.L., as malachoides Willd. 

 (Flo. Berolinensis). — Squat habit but larger and coarser than 

 the preceding. Leaves oval in contour, cardiated or broadened 

 at base, crenate irregular blunt toothing of the simple lobes. 

 Stem hairy, branching. Petals bluish, the length of sepals. 

 A rarer plant of the skin-yards, and only I fancy when the 

 pelts are of Levantine origin. In 1872-5 I used to see it 

 oftener on the Durham harbours' ballast-hills. Very common 

 on the littoral of the Mediterranean. 



E. laciniatum Willd. — Red-petalled Heron's-bill of Crete. 

 Loudon's Ency., No. 9440, and 490 Oxf. List. Stature, six 

 inches or so. Stem prostrate. Inferior leaves lobed, the 

 upper pinnatifid with acute linear lobes (Ardoino). Beak of 

 carpels (4-5 in the umbel), 4 to 6 centimetres. Flowers small, 

 purplish, stipules and bracts ovate, scarious. Mediterranean 

 coasts, Nice (Bertolini) and eastwards ; but its range to-day 

 must be much wider than this delimitation would indicate, 

 and book descriptions vary a little. Perhaps one with E. 

 Botrys Bert., to which neither London nor Druce give a number, 

 although Ardoino defines their points of difference. 



