PLATE CXXI. 



GERANIUM CORTUSiErOLIUM 



.^ 



Cortufa-leaved Geranium. 



CLASS XVL ORDER IV, -/%//- M^^t. Veg. 



1781* 



MONODELPHIA DECJNDRIJ. Threads united. Ten Chives. 



ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. 



MoNOGYNA. Stigmata quinque. Fru£lus rof- 

 tratus, penta-coccus. 



One PoiNTAL. Five fummits. Fruit furnifliecl 



with long awns, five dry berries. 

 See Geranium gkandiflorum^ PL XII. Vol. I. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Geranium foliis cordatis, fublobatis, ferratis, to- [■ Geranium with heart -fhapcd leaves, flightly 

 mentofo-fericeis; petiolis longlffimis, erec- lobed^ fawed, and covered with a downy 



tisj floribus umbellatis, odoratiflimis, fti- 

 pulis fubnlatisj caule robufto^ fubcarnolb. 





pilcj footftalks very long and upright; flow- 

 ers grow in umbels, and are \tTy fweet 

 fcentedj leaf-props awl fliaped; Hera ftout^ 



and rather fleihy. 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1. The Erapalcment cut open. 



2. The Chives and Pointal, natural fize. 



3. The fame, magnified. 



4. The Chives cut open, magnified. 



5. The Seed-budj and Polntal, mao-nified 



'S 



Thb Cortufa-leaved Geranium is a tender plant, feldom growing to more than a foot in height; pro- 

 ducing its bloflbms, which are extremely fragrant, in ereft bunches, from the fummit of the branches, 

 and muft be proteded, through the depth of winter, in the hothoufe. The propagation is both flow 

 and difficult, as it rarely perfefts any feeds, and forms but few branches. The cuttings when taken 

 ofF, which ought to be done about the end of May, fliould be expofed to the fun, till the part where 

 cut has formed a tough coat over the wound, which will take place in two or three days; when thef 

 will not be fo fubjea to rot from the moifture of the earth, as If planted when jult taken from the 

 plant. ^ Thefe inftruaions are necelfary to be obferved, in the propagation of all the thick-Hemmed 

 Geraniums, by cuttings. A mixture of fandy peat, with a fmall quantity of old rotten dung, ^^ll 

 prove the beft compoft for preftrvlng this plant. Our drawing was taken this year, in July, at the 

 Hamraerfmith nurfery. A miftake has arifen with regard to the name of this fpecies of Geraniurn; 

 which was evidently not known to any botanift, antecedent to its being brought to England in 1/80 

 by Mr. A. Hove, a native of Poland, from the fouth weft coaft of Africa, and found by him in about 

 the 23d degree of fouth latitude. Profeffor Martyn, in his new edition of Miller's Didionary, arUdc 

 Pelargonmm 43, has taken for granted that this is the plant defigned by Profeffor Jacquin, where he 

 treats of G. cortufaefoHum ; giving the G. tabulare of Burman, Linnaeus, &c. as fynonymous to it; 

 but undoubtedly, no fuch intention could be in the Profeffor, as the uniting thefe two plants, wlncn 

 arc fo entirely dilEmilar; but only an unfortunate inclination to alter an old eftabliflied name, fur on^ 

 which he conceived more appropriate to a well known, common fi>ecies ; whence the confufiooi ^^ 

 conftaat confequence of fuch ufelefs alterations, whether generic or fpecific. 



