Ord. GERANIACE^. 



Herboe vel sufFrutices, nodis tumidis, foliis oppositis alter- 

 nisve plerumque palmatilobis stipulatis : dicotyledonese, hy- 

 pogynae, symmetricas, pentameras ; asstivatione calycis per- 

 sistentis imbricativa, corollse saspius convolutiva ; staminibus 

 10 submonadelphis, exterioribus brevioribus ssepe ananthe- 

 ris petalis oppositis ; ovariis biovulatis stylisqiie gynophoro 

 columngeformi praelongo adnatis, fructu elastice solutis ; se- 

 minibus solitariis exalbiiminosis ; embryone conduplicato, 

 cotyledonibus magnis flexuoso-convolutis. 



Gerania, Juss. Gen. p. 268. 

 GeranioidejE, Vent. Tab. 3. p. 170. 



GERANIACEJ2, DC. Fl. Fr. & Prodr. 1. p. 637. Endl. Gen. p. 1166. 

 Lindl. Veg. Kingd. p. 493. 



The Geranium Family is well known throngh the wild species of Cranes- 

 bill, or the true Geraniums, of Europe and North America, and by the Pelargo- 

 niums of the Cape of Good Hope, the most common of house-plants. From 

 the related families with which it accords in the general plan and structure 

 of the flowers it is readily distinguished by the prolonged axis (gynophore) , 

 to which the surrounding carpels cohere both by their ovaries and their long 

 styles, and from which they separate at maturity, usually from below up- 

 wards ; the elastically recurved or spirally twisting styles carrying the carpels 

 away with them. The seeds are destitute of albumen ; and the embryo has 

 the large cotyledons convolutely folded together and bent down upon tiie 

 short radicle. The lower leaves are constantly opposite ; the upper some- 

 times alternate. 



The aestivation of the corolla is convolutive only as the general rule. It 

 is occasionally quincuncially imbricativc in the common species of all three 

 genera, and every gradation between the two modes may often be found in 

 different flowers on the same plant. 



In this, as in the foregoing family, the stamens which stand before the 

 petals (here shorter than the others) are an exterior series, and hence are 

 reckoned by some botanists as a deduplication of the corolla. But it is more 



