gekaniace;e. 



169 



1. Common Erodium. Erodium cicutarium, L'Her. 

 (Fig. 211.) 



(Eng. Bpt. t. 1768.) 



Usually an 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 seg- 

 ments 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 6 to 18 lines in length. 



In waste and cultivated lands and 

 dry pastures, especially near the sea, 

 and on roadsides ; very common in Eu- 

 rope, 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 E. hirtum, is also found on our own coasts. 



Fig. 211. 



2. Musk Erodium. Erodium moschatum, L'Her. (Fig. 212.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 902.) 



A much larger and coarser plant than the common _£*., often emitting 

 a strong smell of musk. Stems often a foot long. Leaves on long foot- 

 stalks, with from 9 to 11 distinct, ovate, segments or leaflets, often cor- 

 date at the base, and deeply toothed or shortly pinnatifid. Flowers 

 generally numerous in the umbel, of a bluish purple, rather larger than 

 in the common E., although the petals are scarcely longer than the 

 calyx. Peduncles often 6 or 8 inches long. 



