CRANES-BILr, FA:\riT.v 



103 



^ 14, G. Rubertidiuim (Herb Robert). — One of the most generally 

 diffused and best known species, well distinguished by its red, 

 hairy, succulent, spreading stems ; ternately or quinately divided 

 leaves \\\lh pinnatifid segments, acquiring in autumn the same red- 

 dish hue ; and bright pink elegantly-veined_//i;zcr/-j- ^ in. across, with 

 long, pointed sepa/s, viscid with glandular hairs, and obo^'ate, 

 entire petals. There is a white-flowered variety. The whole 

 plant has a strong smell. — Hedgerows and waste ground ; very 

 common. — Fl. all the summer. Annual. 



leaves 



2. Erodiu-M (Stork's-bill). — Herbs with swollen nodes 

 stipulate ; flowers on i — many- 

 flowered axillary peduncles ; petals 

 rather unequal, sometimes defi- 

 cient ; stamens 5, with alternating 

 staminodes, with glands at the 

 base of the former; styles persist- 

 ing as spirally twisted awns 

 furnished with long elastic bristles 

 on the inner side.^ (Name from 

 the Greek erodios, a stork, from 

 the beaked fruit.) 



1. E. eicutdrhim (Hemlock 

 Stork's-bill). — Stems prostrate, 

 hairy ; leaves bi-pinnatifid, with 

 lanceolate stipules ; peeluncles 

 many-flowered ; Jlo-cers in umbel- 

 late cymes, rosy or white ; petals 

 entire, rather unequal, two often 

 spotted at the base, fugacious. — 

 Waste places, especially near 

 the sea; common. — Fl. all the 

 summer. Annual. 



2. £. moschdtum (^lusk Stork's- 

 bill). — A larger and stouter 

 species, of a deeper green, covered 

 with spreading hairs, somewhat 

 clammy to the touch, and emit- 

 ting, when handled, a strong scent 

 of musk ; leaves less deeply cut, 



1 These aw-ns, which become spirally twisted when ripe, oft|n* sprina: to a considerable 

 distance from the parent plant. Beins hyg-roscopic they uncurl when ni.;istened. The com- 

 bined action of the awn and the bristles on it thus gives to the carpel the power of locomo- 

 tion at everj- change in the moisture surrounding it, and ser^■es t,o bur^- the seed-i'essel. A 

 twisted carpel, if moistened and laid on a sheet of paper, will saon crawl an inch or more 

 away from the spot on which it was laid. 



EKODIUM CICUT.4niL-*,t 



(Hemjock Stork' s-HU). 



