GERANIUM FAMILY. Geraniaceae. 
GERANIUM FAMILY. Geranziaceae. 
Not a large family, herbs, of temperate regions; leaves 
lobed or compound, usually with stipules; flowers perfect; 
sepals and petals usually five and stamens five or ten; 
ovary superior; fruit a capsule. 
There are many kinds of Geranium; stems with swollen 
Joints; stipules papery; five glands on the receptacle, 
alternating with the petals; stamens ten, five long and 
five short, filaments united at base; ovary with a beak 
formed by the five-cleft style, and becoming a capsule, 
which splits open elastically, the style-divisions becoming 
tails on the seeds. The Greek name means “crane,”’ in 
allusion to the long beak of the capsule, and these plants 
are often called Crane’s-bill. Cultivated Geraniums are 
Pelargoniums, from South Africa. 
ga : In the Sierra woods, and along Yosemite 
Wild Geranium : . : 3 
Geranium incisum TOadsides, in summer we see the purplish- 
Pink pink blossoms and nodding buds of this 
Spring,summer attractive plant, resembling the Wild 
HA ee Geranium of the East, growing from thick,. 
perennial roots, with hairy, branching stems, from one to 
two feet high. The hairy leaves, with three or five, 
toothed lobes, are fragrant like cultivated geraniums; the 
flowers, over an inch across, are hairy inside, the petals 
veined with magenta. They are occasionally white and 
the plants vary in size and hairiness. G. furcdtum, of the 
Grand Canyon, has magenta petals, which turn back more. 
This has similar flowers, but is a finer 
Pepe plant, forming large, thrifty-looking 
KremSniii clumps, one or two feet across, of slightly 
Pink thickish leaves, dark green on the upper 
Spring, summer side and paler, with prominent veins, on 
= aaMia a the under, the root-leaves with about 
New Mex. seven, main divisions, the stem-leaves 
three- to five-cleft, each clump of leaves 
with several tall, slightly downy flower-stalks springing 
from it. The calyxes and buds are downy and the flowers 
bright pink or rose-purple, delicately veined. This grows 
in somewhat moist ground, at the edges of fields and 
woody roadsides and on mountain slopes, and is perhaps 
the handsomest of its clan. 
274 
Wild Geranium 

