PELARGONIUMS 
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readily propagated by division of the plants in spring; or by sowing seed at 
the same period on a shady border. When the seedlings are about three 
inches high they must be pricked out to a distance of six inches apart, 
and in the autumn following transplanted to their permanent positions. 
Description of The plant figured is the var. platypetalum of 
Plate 53. G. ibericum, and Fig. 1 is a section of the flower. 
PELARGONIUMS 
Natural Order Geraniace^e. Genus Pdargonivm 
Pelargonium (Greek, pdargos, a stork; from the supposed likeness of 
the carpels to a stork’s head). Stork’s-bill. A genus of about one 
hundred and seventy species of perennial herbs, shrubs, or sub-shrubs, 
•similar in many respects to Geranium, but differing in the irregular 
petals, the absence of glands, and in the upper sepal being furnished 
with a spur, which, however, is not very evident owing to its growth 
to the footstalk. There are ten stamens as in Geranium, but of these 
from three to six are always without anthers. The genus is divided 
into a number of sub-genera. The flowers are borne in umbels; the 
leaves usually opposite, and the umbels axillary on long stalks. The 
species are nearly all natives of the Cape of Good Hope, the exceptions 
being two or three indigenous to North Africa, two or three to Australasia, 
a couple to St. Helena, and one to Asia Minor. None are really hardy in 
Britain, though some will survive ordinary winters out of doors in 
sheltered places in the south. 
The first species of Pelargonium to be introduced to 
8 17 the notice of the English gardener appears to have been 
P. triste, brought from the Cape in 1632. (It should be understood that, 
to avoid much needless repetition, all the species mentioned are from 
South Africa, unless otherwise stated.) Not many other species were 
introduced in the seventeenth century, but towards its close P. capitatum 
(1690), P. cucudatum (1690), P. alchemiUoides (1693), and P. myrrhi- 
folium (1696) first made their appearance here. It was during the 
eighteenth century that most of the important species were made 
known, such as P. peltatum (1701), P. zonale (1710), P. gibbosum (1712), 
P. inquinans (1714), P. angulosum (1724), P. quercifolium and P. 
graveolens (1774), P. lateripes (1787), P grandijlorum (1794). P. 
endlicherianum is of quite recent discovery, having been introduced 
from the Taurus in 1855. For a period of about one hundred and 
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