8 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



ones. They are oftener more like the anterior petal in size and 

 colour, enveloped , by , them in prsefloration, but which, being 

 situated on the medial line of the flower, has its two halves sym- 

 metrical 1 (fig. 16). , The aiidroceum is formed of ten stamens united 

 for a variable distance at their base, and disposed on two verticels. 

 As a rule, seven of them are fertile and provided with a bilocular 

 introrse anther, dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts. These are the 

 five stamens superposed to the sepals and the two superposed to the 

 posterior petals. The three others, or a larger number, are reduced 

 to filaments sometimes very short or scarcely visible. The number 

 of fertile stamens may be not more than five or three. Thegynseceum. 

 is quite that of the Geraniums,^ as are also the fruit and seeds in 

 which the albumen is generally wanting or reduced to a thin 

 membrane. Pelargonium consists of shrubs, undershrubs and herbs, 

 whose organs are often charged with glandular capitate hairs, viscous 

 and aromatic. The leaves, alternate or opposite, and the inflorescences 

 are the same as in Geranium. More than three hundred species 

 have been described, almost all natives of central Africa. But the 

 number of admitted species is considerably reduced and this region 

 only really possesses about a hundred and fifty .^ There are three' 

 or four in North and East Africa,^ and nearly as many in Australia 

 and New Zealand.* A certain number of distinct genera have' been 

 formed of them which are now rightly reduced, to sections; the 

 characters being drawn from the stems, leaves and flowers.^ 



1 This petal may be quite wanting or very distributed this genus into 16 sections, adopted ■ 

 small. .The lateral petals are rarely wsinting, by Benth. and Hook : 



but they may be very small, reduced to narro\y \. Soarea (SwswTi' Get'an. t. 18). Herbee 



tongues, hidden by the sepals. acaul. rhizom. tuberosoj petalis 4, 5 {Dimacna ■ 



2 AiT. Sort. Keio. ii. 417.— Jacq. Ic. Rar. t. Sweet, t. i&;—'Ch-evUka Sweet, sub; t. 262); 

 510-521.— Jacq. f. Eel. t. 97.— Cav. Diss. t. 97- 2. Seymouria (Sweet, t. 206). Herb, acatrl. 

 123 (^ecamam).— Habt. et Sond. Fl. Cap. i. rhizom. tuberose, petal. 2'. ' 



269.— Walp. Ann. iv. 397 ; vii. 488. 3. Polyactium (DC. ;■ -Eckl. et Ze^h. Eimn. 



3 Fenzl, in Susseg. Sets. t. 3.— Boiss. Fl. Or. 65). Herb, eauleac. rhiz. tuber, fol. lobat. \, 

 i. 898.— .Bo*. Mag, t. 4946.— Walp. Sep. ii. piunatim decomp. infloresc. oo -floris, petal, siibi' 

 820 ; Ami. ii. 237. Eequal. obovat. initegr. v. lacer. {PolyscMsma 



* Hook. f. Fl. N.-Zel. i. 41 ; Fl. Tasm. i. 57. Tuiioz. in Bull., Mose. (1869, i. 269). 



— HuEG. in Bot. Arch. t. 5.— Nees, in P/. Pirns. 4. Otidia (Sweet, t. 98). Caul, succul. nodes. 



i. 163.— F. MuELL. Fir. Vict. i. 170, t. suppl. ii. fol. carnos. pinnat. v. 2-pinnat. petal, subjequal. ^ 



TuBoz. in Bull. Mose. (1858), i. 149, 421.— basi auriculatis. 



Benth. Fl. Austral, i. 298. 5. Ligularia (Eckl. et Zeyh. 69). CauL suc- 



fHABVEi [Fl. Cap, i. 260) has in this way cul. v. tenuis ramos., fol. raro integr, s^pius mul. 



