WILD GERANIUM 



tending from the base of the upper sepal which is not noticed by 

 the casual observer because it is grown to the footstalk. In many 

 of the cultivated forms it seems virtually to have disappeared. 



WILD GERANIUM. CRANESBILL 



Geranium maculatum. 



Geranium, Greek, geranos, a crane; alluding to the long beak of the five- 

 carpelled fruit. 



A native perennial Geranium found on the border of woodlands, 

 with five-lobed green leaves blotched with paler green and delicate pink 

 blossoms two inches across. Common throughout the North. May, 

 June. 



Stem. — Erect, branching, hairy. 



Leaves. — Palmately parted into five to seven wedge-shaped divisions 

 cut and cleft at the end, sometimes whitish-blotched, rough, hairy. 



Flowers. — In terminal or axilary loose clusters, pale magenta-pink, an 

 inch or more across; pedicels one to three flowered. 



Sepals. — Five, acute, awned. 



Petals. — Five, pale magenta-pink, veined, beard on the claw. 



Stamens. — Ten, the five inner ones the longer, each with a honey 

 gland at its base. 

 Ovary. — Five united carpels; styles united; stigmas, five, recurved. 



Fruit. — Separating from axis into five akenes and uplifted on the 

 curving styles. 



This native Geranium is worthy a place in the wild border if 

 not by the garden walk. The opening corolla is a deep magenta- 

 pink, but becomes paler with age. Cranesbill is a popular trans- 

 lation of Geranium which is derived from a Greek word meaning 

 crane and which was given to the plant because of the resemblance 

 of the fruit, with its prolonged beak, to the bill of a crane. 



Herb Robert, Geranium Robertihnum, is a handsome plant ad- 

 ventive from Europe. There is always more or less red about 

 both leaves and stems. The flowers are small, rose-pink with 



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