XX. GERANIACE^. 89 



settled, some botanists excluding Impatiens, Oxalis, and Tropceolum, thus 

 confining it to the old Linnsean genus Geranium. 



Flowers regular. 

 Leaves opposite, cut or toothed. Carpels 1-seeded, round the 

 base of a long-beaked receptacle or axis. 



Ten stamens 1. Geranium. 



Five stamens 2. Erodium. 



Leaves radical or alternate, with 3 entire leaflets. B,eceptacle 



or axis not beaked. Carpels with several seeds . . . 3. Oxalis. 

 Flowers irregular, with a large conical spur 4. Impatiens. 



The Cape Pelargoniums, so frequent in our greenhouses, belong to 

 Geraniacece. The South American Tropceolums, including the common 

 Nasturtium of gardeners, are also very nearly allied. 



I. GERANIUM. GERANIUM. 



Herbs, with forked stems often swollen at the nodes, opposite, pal- 

 mately divided leaves, and purplish flowers, solitary or 2 together, 

 on axillary peduncles. Stamens 10, of which 5 shorter, but generally 

 with anthers. Ovary 5-lobed, terminating in a long beak with 5 short 

 stigmas on the top, the lobes being all whorled round the long-beaked 

 receptacle. Capsule separating into 5 1-seeded carpels, which curl up- 

 wards, with a long elastic awn, detached from the beak, and glabrous 

 inside. 



A genus spread over the northern hemisphere, with a few species in 

 the southern, but always without the tropics. It is easily distinguished 

 from all but Erodium by the long beak of the fruit, which has given to 

 the two genera Geranium and Erodium the popular name of Crane's- 

 bill. 



Rootstock perennial. Flowers usually large. 



Peduncles 1-flowered 1. G. sanguineum. 



Peduncles with 2 (rarely 3) flowers. 

 Petals deeply notched. (Flowers not so large.) . . . 5. G. pyrenaicum. 

 Petals entire or slightly notched. 

 Petals dark purple, very spreading or almost reflexed. 



Points of the sepals very short 2. G. phaium. 



Petals bluish-purple. Sepals with long fine points. 

 Pedicels of the fruit erect. Flowers numerous, corym- 

 bose 3. G. sylvaticum. 



Pedicels of the fruit spreading or reflexed. Flowers in 



a loose panicle 4. G. pratense. 



Annuals, with small flowers. 

 Leaves of 3 distinct segments, which are pinnately cut or 



divided 6.G. Robertianum. 



Leaves palmately cut or divided into 5 or more lobes or seg- 

 ments. 

 Calyx pyramidal, with projecting angles. Petals entire, 



much longer than the sepals 7. G. lucidum. 



Calyx scarcely angular. Petals about as long, unless deeply 

 notched. 

 Leaves divided to the base into 5 or more narrow cut seg- 

 ments. 

 Peduncles much shorter than the leafstalks. 

 Leaves much divided. Seeds dotted . . . . 11. G. dissectum. 

 Leaves small, the lower ones divided to the middle 



only. Seeds smooth 9. G. pusillum. 



Peduncles and pedicels long and slender. Leaves much 



divided .... . . . . 12. G. columbinum. 



Leaves orbicular, seldom divided below the middle. 

 Petals deeply notched. 

 Petals twice as long as the calyx 5. G. pyrenaicum. 



