940 GERANIUM. | CLASS XVI. ORDER II. 
B.purpureum. Smaller, with glandular hairs upon the fruit ; the 
petals slightly notched ; leaves smaller, and more fleshy. 
G. purpureum, Vill.—English Botany, Suppl. t. 2648.—@. Raii.— 
Lindley, Synopsis, p 57.—G. robertianum, var. 8. Smith —English 
Flora, vol. iii. p. 235. 
foot long, slender, branched. Stems mostly numerous, erect, and 
spreading, round, brittle, succulent, generally of a deep shining red 
colour, somewhat swollen at the joints, and more or less hairy. 
Leaves opposite, pinnate, of three or five pinnatifid stalked leaflets, 
each of which is serrated, and more or less deeply cut, the outline of 
the leaf is five angled, the lower ones on long slender hairy footstalks, 
the upper ones nearly sessile, a shining green above, often pinkish, 
paler beneath, and more or less thickly scattered over with compressed 
white hairs, of a somewhat fleshy texture, especially in var. P. 
Stipules lanceolate, membranous, mostly hairy. lowers small, 
deep rose colour, white at the base and claw. Peduneles axillary, two 
flowered, slender, and as well as the short pedicles more or less clothed 
with pubescence, which is sometimes glandulous. Bracteas small. 
Calyx angular, hairy, of five three ribbed ovate lanceolate bristle 
pointed pieces. Stamens with awl-shaped filaments and purple 
anthers. Petals obovate, entire, or slightly notched, three ribbed, 
the claw slender, tapering. Carpels ovate, more or less deeply 
wrinkled and hairy. Seeds smooth. 
Habitat—Banks, waste and shady places, common; var. f. near 
the ‘sea in various places. 
Annual ; flowering from May to October 
The leaves of this plant have, when bruised, a remarkably disagree- 
able odour; at one time it was held in great estimation as an ex- 
ternal application in erysipelatous inflammations, cancer, old 
ulcers, &c.; but it has in the cure of these diseases been succeeded 
by other and more successful remedies. All the species of Geranium 
secrete more or less abundantly odoriferous resins and essential oil ; 
indeed so abundant are these secretions in some of the tribe, as in 
Sarcocaulon L’ Heretieri, that the stems are burnt like torches, and 
during combustion give out an agreeable fragrance; and from the 
leaves and stems of Pelargonium odoratissimum is distilled an ex- 
tremely fragrant and agreeable essential oil used in perfumery, 
«x Carpels even. Seeds pitted. 
10. G. rotundifo'lium, Linn. (Fig, 1089.) Round-leaved Crane’s-bill. 
Peduncles two flowered; pedicles after flowering deflexed; petals 
oblong, wedge-shaped, rather longer than the oblong short pointed 
pubescent calyx; carpels even pubescent ; seeds netted; stem spread- 
ing ; leaves roundish, kidney-shaped, downy, lobed, cut, and crenated. 
English Botany, t. 157.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 240.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 260.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 57. 
