POLYPETAL^.— GERANIACE^ 



135 



GERANIACE-E (Geranium Family) 



Herbs with stipulate leaves. Flowers usually regular, 

 h)rpogynous. Sepals five. Petals five, polypetalous. Stamens 

 5 + 5, obdiplostemonous, or only five ; filaments slightly 

 united at their bases. Carpels five, syncarpous; ovary, five- 

 chambered. Fruit possessing a "beak." 



Type: HERB ROBERT (^Geranium, robertianum). 



Vegetative characters.— Herb, strongly scented, erect or 

 spreading. Leaves alternate, stipulate, siinple, deeply divided. 

 The leaf is in the first place incompletely divided into three 



sa 



Fig. 165. — Vertical section ot flower of Herb Robert. 



primary divisions, thus showing that the venation is essentially 

 palmate, though the finer nerves are pinnate. Branching and 

 Inflorescence. — The branching at the summit of the stem is 

 cymose: the primary method of branching is forked (dichasium), 

 but the subsequent branches are monochasia. The flowers are 

 ultimately arranged in pairs. Each pair represents a mono- 

 chasium with a terminal flower and a lateral flower which arises 

 in the axil of the larger of the two prophylls of that axis. 

 Flower (fig. 165) actinomorphic, §, cyclic: purplish-red. 



