98 GEKANiACEJi. [Geranium 



awn brislly at ibe summit. Petals small, pink, entiie or with a slioht notch, and 

 very slender while claws. Capsules "reenish gray, elliptical-ohlong, scarcely 

 compressed, not wrinkled, hispid with white erect hairs, and with a thm dorsal 

 hardly prominent keel, ending at the hase of the capsule in a short blunt apex, 

 which is bearded on the inner side chiefly with long white bristles, beak long, 

 clothed with short pubescence, intermixed towards the base with longer gland- 

 tipped and spreading hairs. Seeds broadly oyate or elliptical, brownish, covered 

 ■with a prominent often whitish net of mostly hexagonal cells. 



4. G. molle, L. Dove's-foot Crane's-bill. " Leaves rounded or 

 reniform lobed and cut downy, their segments obtuse, petals 

 notched scarcely longer than the calyx, their claws bearded, cap- 

 sules transversely wrinkled, seeds without dots." — Br. Fl. p. 84. 

 E. B. t. 778. 



^. Flowers white. 



y. Flowers smaller ; petals scarcely longer than the calyx ; leaves more deeply 

 incised. 



In dry waste and cultivated ground, fields and pastures, on hedgebanks and by 

 waysides ; very common. Fl.M.a.'j — August. 0. 



The variety with white flowers is common in the island. 



y. By Quarr Abbey. Sandy banks of Alverstone farm, with G. pusillum. 



The herbage has a perceptible musky fragrance on a warm day, in addition to 

 its usual rather strong odour, and which is retained for some time after the plant 

 is gathered. 



This species has none of the brittleness of the last and some others of the 

 genus. Seeds roundish ovoid, pale brown. 



The var. y. may be easily mistaken for G. pusillum, nor are they easily distin- 

 guished without close examination of the stamens and capsules. 



5. G. pusillum, L. Small - fioxvered Crane's-bill. "Petals 

 notched, anther-bearing stamens 5, leaves rounded or reniform 

 palmate with 5 — 7 deep trifid lobes, capsules smooth carinated 

 downy with erect appressed hairs, seeds without dots-" — Br. Fl. 

 p. 84. E. B. t. 385. Fl. Dan. xii. t. 1994 (bona). 



In similar places with the last, but much less frequently, and mostly on a sandy 

 soil. Fl. May — August. 0. 



E. Med. — In considerable plenty and very large in a sandy field close to and 

 immediately in front of Bridge Court farm-house. On a hedgebank just out ol 

 Shauklin towards Cliff farm. Clover-field by Lee farm, near Shanklin. Sandy 

 field near Alverstone in some plenty, and in the dry part of Alverstone Lynch. 

 Amongst clover in the vicarage glebe at Newchui'ch, in great abundance, also 

 near Alverstone farm. Apparently not unfrequeut about Newchurch. Fields 

 above San down bay. 



The present plant so very closely resembles the preceding as to be easily over- 

 looked for that species. The following characters will be found to distinguish G. 

 pusillum. Stems generally redder in colour, the pubescence far shorter, finer and 

 more or less deflexed. Leaves more deeply cleft. Flowers much smaller, except 

 in var. y. of G. molle, more inclining to blue or purplish, their pedicels I think 

 rather longer in proportion to the peduncles, and more suddenly bent or at a more 

 acute angle immediately beneath the flower than in G. molle, in which the cur- 

 vature is lower down on the pedicel and more considerable in amount of flexure. 

 Sepals somewhat less obtuse. Petals much narrower, wedge- rather than heart- 

 shaped, with longer more slender claws, simply 3-, not as in the last sub-5-nerved, 

 appearing from their greater narrowness to stand widely apart, usually about the 

 length of the calyx, rarely considerably (nearly twice) longer. Anthers 5, the 

 other stamens (always ?) abortive. Styles pale, erect, not as in G. molle, spreading, 

 scarcely so long as the stamens. Capsule very downy, not wrinkled, when unripe 



