PLATE CXXI. 



GERANIUM CORTUSiEFOLIUM. 



Cor tufa-leaved Geranium. 



CLASS XVI. ORDER IV. ifSu&i. Sv/?<m. r tg . 



1781. 



MONODELPHIA DECANDRIA. Threads united. Ten Chives. 



ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Monogyna. Stigmata quinque. Fru&us rof- One Pointal. Five fummits. Fruit furnifhed 



tratus, penta-coccus. || with long awns, five dry berries. 



See Geranium gkandiflorum, PI. XII. Vol. I. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



i 



Geranium foliis cordatis, fublobatis, ferratis, to- Geranium with heart - lhaped leaves, {lightly 



mentofo-fericeis; petiolis longiflimis, erec- lobed, tawed, and covered with a downy 



tis; floribus umbellatis, odoratillimis, fti- pile; footftalks very long and upright; rlovv- 



pulis fubulatis; caule robufto, fubcarnofo. 



ers grow in umbels, and are very fvveet 

 lcented; leaf-props aw 1 lhaped; Item flout, 

 and rather flefhy. 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1. The Empalement cut open. 



2. The Chives and Pointal, natural fize. 



3. The fame, magnified. 



4. The Chives cut open, magnified. 



5. The Seed-bud, and Pointal, magnified. 



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

 ducing its bloffoms, which are extremely fragrant, in erect bunches, from the furamit of the branches, 

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

 and difficult, as it rarely perfects 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 die fun, till the part where 

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

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

 plant. Thefe inftructions are neceffary to be obferved, in the propagation of all the thick-ftemmed 

 Geraniums, by cuttings. A mixture of fandy peat, with a (mall quantity of old rotten dung, will 

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

 Hammerfmith nurfery. A miftake has arifen with regard to the name of this fpecies of Geranium ; 

 which was evidently not known to any botanirt, antecedent to its being brought to England in IJSt) 

 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. ProfefTor Martyn, in his new edition of Miller's Dictionary, article 

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

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

 but undoubtedly, no fuch intention could be in the ProfefTor, as the uniting thefe two plants, which 

 are fo entirely diffimilar; but only an unfortunate inclination to alter an old eftablifhed name, for one, 

 which he conceived more appropriate to a well known, common fpecies; whence the confufion; the 

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



