WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 1 55 



Geranium Family 



Geraniaceae 



Herb Robert; Red Robin 



Robert iclla robertiana (Linnaeus) Hanks 

 {Geranium robertianum Linnaeus) 



Plate i 10 



Roots mostly biennial, sometimes annual, giving rise to one or several 

 ascending or nearly erect, glandular-pubescent stems 5 to 18 inches high. 

 Entire plant with a strong, disagreeable odor. Leaves rounded-ovate in 

 outline, the divisions deeply cleft or lobed, the margins with oblong, mucro- 

 nate teeth. Flowers reddish purple, about one-half of an inch broad, two 

 on each stalk; sepals five, each tipped with an awn. Petals five, each with 

 a slender claw and an obovate, rounded blade. Stamens ten; ovary five- 

 lobed and five-celled. Fruiting capsule about 1 inch long, awn-tipped, 

 separating at maturity into five carpels, the bodies deciduous from the 

 styles at maturity, each with two fibrous appendages near the top. 



In rich soil of rocky woodlands, Nova Scotia to Manitoba south to 

 Pennsylvania and Missouri; also in Europe and Northern Africa. Flow- 

 ering from May to September. 



Wild Geranium; Wild or Spotted Crane's-bill 



Geranium maculatum Linnaeus 



Plate 120 



Stems mainly simple from a stout, perennial rootstock, often much 

 branched above, hairy, 10 to 20 inches high. The basal leaves nearly 

 orbicular, broadly heart-shaped, on long leaf -stalks; the blades 3 to 5 inches 

 wide, deeply three to five-lobed with wedge-shaped divisions, the margins 

 cleft or toothed; leaves of the stem two, opposite, short-stalked, similar 

 to the basal leaves. Flowers rose-purple, \ to \\ inches broad, terminal 

 in two to five-flowered, loose, leaf y-bracted umbels; sepals sharp pointed; 

 petals five, woolly at the base, thin, broad and overlapping one another. 

 Fruit an elongated capsule tipped with the persistent compound style, 



