GERANlACEiE. 209 



The Wood sorrel is now seldom used in medicine; it is, however, a good 

 antiscorbutic, and the bruised leaves have been employed with advantage as 

 art external application to scrofulous ulcers. The juice is also sometimes used 

 as a cooling drink in febrile complaints, either diluted with water, or boiled 

 with milk so as to form a whey. The principal value of the plant arises 

 from the quantity of binoxalate of potash it contains. Neuman obtained two 

 ounces two drachms and one scruple of this salt from six pounds of the 

 juice ; in Switzerland and some parts of Germany, where this manufacture 

 is carried on to some extent, it is calculated that 500 parts of the fresh plant 

 furnish four of the pure salt. 



No detailed .analysis of it has. been made, but it is probable that in addition 

 to the oxalate of potash, that it contains merely the usual vegetable consti- 

 tuents. This salt also exists in the other species of the genus, as the 0. cor- 

 niculata and O. violacea, as well as in many plants not allied to them, as in 

 several species of Rheum and Rumez. 



Order 37.— GERANIACEvE.— Be Candolle. 



Sepals 5, persistent, sometimes spurred at base, with an imbricate aestivation. Petals 

 5 (by abortion sometimes four) hypogynous, unguiculate, with a twisted aestivation. 

 Stamens usually monadelphous at base, as many or twice as many as sepals ; anthers 

 fixed by the middle, introrse. Ovary of 5 lobes, each 1- or 2-celled, placed alternate with 

 the sepals, round an elevated axis; styles 5, cohering round the axis. Pericarp of 5 

 carpels, united to the central axis, and when mature separating by the twisting of the 

 permanent style. Seeds solitary, exalbuminous, with a lateral hilum ; radicle straight, 

 cotyledons convolute, plaited. 



This extensive order, which is mainly constituted of the genus Geranium 

 of Linnseus, contains an immense number of herbaceous, rarely shrubby 

 plants, having tumid stems which are separable at the nodes ; the leaves are 

 mostly apposite, generally furnished with stipules, petiolate, palmately-lobed 

 or divided, though sometimes entire. The peduncles are terminal or axillary. 

 The general character of this order is astringency. 



Geranium. — Linn. 



Sepals equal. Petals 5, equal, regular. Stamens 10, fertile ; the alternate ones larger, 

 each with a melliferous gland at base. Arilli 5, 1-seeded, awned, awns naked at length 

 revolute. 



The genus Geranium, as now recognised by botanists, is confined to those 

 species having ten fertile stamina, those with five forming the genus Frodium, 

 and those with seven, Pelargonium. The species are almost all herbaceous, 

 and are principally natives of Europe ; about six are found in North America, 

 of which several are common to both continents. The name is derived from 

 the Greek appellation of the crane, from a supposed resemblance of the per- 

 manent style to the bill of that bird. 



G. maculatum, Linn. — Stem erect, pubescent, dichotomous; leaves 3 — 5 parted, incised ; 

 cauline opposite, radicle on long petioles ; petals entire ; peduncles long. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 955 ;• Bigelow, Med. Boi. i. t. 8; Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. 

 i. t. 13 ; Torrey and Gray, Fl. i. 206 ; Lindley, Fl. Med. 221. 



Common Names. — Crowfoot ; Alum Root ; Common Crane's-bill, &c. 

 Foreign Names. — Bee de grue, Fr. ; Gefleckter Storchschnabel, Ger. 



14 



