CRANE'S-BILL FAMILY 



103 



14. G. Robertidnum (Herb Robert). — One of the most generally 

 diffused and best known species, well distinguished by its red, 

 hairy, succulent, spreading stems ; temately or quinately divided 

 leaves with pinnatifid segments, acquiring in autumn the same red- 

 dish hue ; and bright pink elegantly-veinedyfozwr.y \ in. across, with 

 long, pointed sepals, viscid with glandular hairs, and obovate, 

 entire petals. There is a white-flowered variety. The whole 

 plant has a strong smell. — Hedgerows and waste ground ; very 

 common. — Fl. all the summer. Annual. 



2. Erodium (Stork's-bill). — Herbs with swollen nodes ; leaves 

 stipulate; flowers on 1 — many- 

 flowered axillary peduncles ; petals 

 rather unequal, sometimes defi- 

 cient ; stamens 5, with alternating 

 staminodes, with glands at the 

 base of the former ; styles persist- 

 ing as spirally twisted awns 

 furnished with long elastic bristles 

 on the inner side. 1 (Name from 

 the Greek erddios, a stork, from 

 the beaked fruit.) 



1. E. cicutdrium (Hemlock 

 Stork's-bill). — Stems prostrate, 

 hairy ; leaves bi-pinnatifid, with 

 lanceolate stipules ; peduncles 

 many-flowered ; flowers in umbel- 

 late cymes, rosy or white ; petals 

 entire, rather unequal, two often 

 spotted at the base, fugacious. — 

 Waste places, especially near 

 the sea; common.— Fl. all the 

 summer. Annual. 



2. E. moschdtam (Musk Stork's- 

 bill). — A larger and stouter 

 species, of a deeper green, covered 

 with spreading hairs, somewhat 

 clammy to the touch, and emit- 

 ting, when handled, a strong scent 

 of musk ; leaves less deeply cut, 



1 These awns, which become spirally twisted when ripe, often spring; to a considerable 

 distance from the parent plant. Being hygroscopic they uncurl when moistened. T 

 bined action of the awn and the bristles on it thus gives to the carpel the power of 

 tion at every change in the moisture surrounding it, and serves to bury the seed-vessel, 

 twisted carpel, if moistened and laid on a sheet of paper, will soon crawl an inch or n 

 away from the spot on which it was laid. 



er6dium cicutXrium 

 (Hemlock Stork's-bill). 



The com- 

 ocomo- 

 A 

 more 



