EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



403 



783. Ord. Geraniacea; {CranesUU Family). Herbs or shrubby 

 plants, commonly strong-scented ; with palmately veined and usually 

 lobed leaves, mostly with stipules ; the lower opposite. Flowers 

 regular. — Calyx of five persistent sepals, imbricated in aestivation. 

 Petals five, with claws, mostly convolute in estivation. Stamens 10, 

 the five exterior hypogynous, occasionally sterile ; the filaments all 

 broad and often united at the base ; five glands within and alternate 

 with the petals. Ovary of fi\'e two-ovuled carpels, attached to the 

 base of an elongated axis {gynobase, Fig. 430, 431) to which the 

 styles cohere : in fruit the distinct one-seeded carpels separate from 

 the axis, by the twisting or curling back of the persistent indurated 



styles from the base upwards. Seeds with no albumen : cotyledons 

 convolute and plaited together, bent on the short radicle. For the 

 plan of the blossom see p. 2G4, and Fig. 421. Our cultivated 

 Geraniums, so called, from the Cape of Good Hope, are species of 

 Pelargonium. The roots ai-e simply and strongly astringent. The 

 foliage abounds with resinous matter and an ethereal oil, on which 

 the aroma depends. 



784. Ord, BalsaminaceX {Balsam Family). Annual herbs, with 

 succulent stems filled with a watery juice. Leaves simple, without 

 stipules. Flowers irregular, and one of the colored sepals spurred 

 ov saccate. Stamens five, cohering by an internal appendage. 



FIG. 753. Radical leaf of Geranium maculatum (Cranesbill). 754. A flowering branch. 



755. A flower with the calyx and corolla removed, showing the stamens, &c. 756. The pistil 



in fruit ; the indurated styles separating helow from the prolonged axis, and curving ba«k 



■ elaatically, carrying with them the membranous carpels. 757. A magnified seed. 758. A 



cross-section of the same, showing the folded and convolute cotyledons. 



