100 CERANIACE«* 



tained in their foliage, and some hiave, edible tubers. All three 

 tribes furnish beautiful plants to our gardens. Most of the species 

 grown as Geraniums, which are derived iliainly from South Africa, 

 belong truly to the allied genus Pelargonium, which differs in 

 having the posterior sepal wider than the rest, and provided with 

 a tabular spur containing nectar, which is adherent to the flower- 

 stalk, so that the flower is monosym metric. 



Tribe I. Geraniej;. — Tlie Crane's-bill Tribe. — Flowers poly- 

 symmetric : sepals inibrieate : fruit a beaked reg>na separating into 

 five indehiscent coal : stjles persisting as awns. 



1. Geranium. — Stamens lo ; a^uns recurved, smooth. 



2. Erodium. — Stamens 5 ; staminoil's 5 ; mons spiral, bearded. 



Trilh' II. Oxali'dE-E. — The Jl'ood-Sorrel Tribe. — Flowers poly- 

 sy m metric : sepals imbricate : stamens 10 : fruit a capsule 



3. (ixALis — Leaves ternate ; seeds with an elastic testa. 



Tribe III. BALSAiifNE.E. — The Balsam Tribe. — Flowers mono- 

 synimetric : sepals petaloid, the posterior spurred : stamens 5 : fruit 

 a capsule, bursting elastically. 



4. Impatieks. — leaves simple ; sepals 3 ; petals 3. 



1. GkrAnium (Crane's-bill). — Herbs with swollen nodes, rarely 

 shrubs; leaves simple, stipulate, lohed -^Jlowers on i — 2-flowered 

 axillary peduncles; stamens 10, 5 of which are alternately larger, 

 and have glands at their base ; styles persisting as smooth awns 

 which curve upwards from the long beak (carpophore) of the 

 fruit. (Name from the Greek gcranos, a crane, from the beaked 

 fruit.) 



'■'' Perennial 



I. G. saiiguineum (Bloody Crane's bill). An exceedingly 

 handsome plant with hau'y stems ; abundant loliage, radical leaves 

 nearly round, with 7 deeply-cut lobes, each of which is 3-cleft, 

 cauline leaves 5- or 3-l()bed ;' flowers 1 — t ', in. across, crimson or 

 pink, solitary, on long stalks. — Dry rocktjand shores ;not common. 

 — Fl. July — September. 



2.* G. versicolor, with slender, erect, hairy stem, 18 in. high, 

 and 2-?[o\itKd. peduncles bearing white,i fed-veined yfozcevx, occurs 

 as an escape. 



1 Particular care should tie taken when eomparing spt;eimens witti [lie above descriptions, 

 to examine the radical leaves, foi the cauline lea\-es vary even on the same plant to such 

 a degree as to defy description. 



