* Sek Flas i 
94 THE GERANIUM FAMILY. | [Erodium, — 
annual, but often forming a dense tuft, with a thick taproot, and in some — 
situations lasting at least a second year, always more or less covered with — 
spreading hairs, which are sometimes viscid. Stems sometimes exceedingly 
short, sometimes lengthening out to 6 inches or near a foot. Leaves 
mostly radical, pinnate, on long stalks, the segments distinct and deeply 
pinnatifid, with narrow, more or less cut lobes. Peduncles erect, bearing 
an umbel of from 2 or 3 to 10 or 12 small purple or pink flowers. Sepals 
pointed, about the length of the obovate, entire petals. Carpels slightly 
hairy, the beak varying from 16 to 18 lines in length. Bas 
In waste and cultivated lands and dry pastures, especially near the sea, 
and on roadsides ; very common in Europe, Russian and central Asia, and 
northern America, short of the Arctic Circle. Generally distributed over 
Britain. Fl. spring and summer. A maritime, more viscid, and hairy 
variety, known in southern Europe as £. hirtwm, is also found on our own 
coasts. 
2. &.moschatum, L’Hér. (fig. 214). Musk Hrodium.—A much 
larger and coarser plant than L. cicutarium, often emitting a strong 
smell of musk. Stems often a foot long. Leaves on long footstalks, with - 
from 9 to 11 distinct, ovate segments or leaflets, often cordate at the base, 
and deeply toothed or shortly pinnatifid. Flowers generally numerous in 
the umbel, of a bluish-purple, rather larger than in L. cicutarium, although 
the petals are scarcely longer than the calyx. Peduncles often 6 or 8 
inches long, 
In sandy waste places and heaths, especially near the sea, in western 
and southern Europe. Abundant in the Channel Islands, found also on 
the southern and western coasts of England and south Wales; local in 
Ireland. Fl. summer. 
3. BE. maritimum, |’ Her. (fig. 215). Sea Hrodium.—A small, softly 
hairy, often viscid annual, with the same varying habit as Z#. cicutarium, 
but easily distinguished by the simple, not pinnate leaves, often not above 
half an inch long, ovate-cordate, more or less toothed or even lobed, but 
.seldom beyond halfway to the midrib. Peduncles seldom longer than the 
‘leaves, with 1, 2, or rarely more, small, reddish-purple flowers. Beak of 
the fruit seldom above 6 lines long ; the hairs of the inside of the awn very 
few, or perhaps sometimes entirely wanting. 
In maritime sands, in western Europe, and on the Mediterranean, where 
it varies much more than with us, and should probably include several 
species of modern botanists. Not uncommon on the south and west coasts 
of England, up to the south of Scotland, all round Ireland. Has been 
found also in some inland situations in England, 7. all summer. 
III. OXALIS. OXALIS. ) 
Herbs, either annual, or with a tuberous or creeping, perennial rootstock, 
and, in European species, palmately trifoliate, long-stalked leaves. 
Flowers solitary, or several in an umbel, on radical or axillary peduncles. 
Sepals 5. Petals 5. Stamens 10. Ovary angular, not beaked, 5-celled, 
with several ovules in each cell. Styles 5, short, scarcely united at the 
base. Capsule with 5 angles, opening in as many valves. 
A very numerous genus, widely diffused over the temperate and hotter 
regions of the globe. A few tropical species have entire or pinnate leaves, — 
and are occasionally undershrubs ; but the great mass of the genus, like the 
