THE LONG-STALKED CRANE’S-BILL— continued. 
In the library of Magdalen College, Oxford, is a copy of How’s “ Phytologia 
Britannica ” (1650), the earliest British Flora, which belonged to Goodyer and 
contains many notes by him. Among these occurs “ Geranium columbinum fol. 
majus dissectis, pediculis longissimis flore magno,” that is “ The Dove’s-foot 
Crane’s-bill with much cut leaves, long flower-stalks and a large flower,” stated to 
grow “in several places in Hampshire”; and this note was printed in Merrett’s 
“ Pinax ” in 1666. Dillenius, in his edition of Ray’s “Synopsis” (1724), says that 
this species was first shown him by Jacob Bobart from fields near Oxford ; but that 
he had himself subsequently found it abundant about Swanley in Kent. On the 
strength of Bobart’s finding it at Oxford, Petiver in his illustrated catalogue of 
Ray’s herbarium calls the plant “ Bobart’s long cut Crane’s-bill.” 
The graceful droop of the blossoms at the extremity of their long slender stalks 
is one of the charms of this not very common species, which occurs in hedgerows 
and pastures on dry gravelly or limestone soil. The flowers are raised above the 
surrounding vegetation by the elongation of both the main peduncle and the pedicels 
of the individual blossoms. As these flowers do not exceed three-quarters of an inch 
in diameter, they can hardly be said to owe much of their conspicuousness or beauty 
to their size. The large, ovate, green sepals extend slender points between the 
petals ; whilst these latter organs, which are slightly notched with a short, blunt 
point in the notch, are of an indescribable colour — a rose-colour shot with a bluish 
bloom — that at once distinguishes them as among the most beautiful of their 
race. As in the Meadow Crane’s-bill and Herb Robert, pure white-flowered 
varieties occasionally occur. 
As stamens and stigmas mature simultaneously, self-pollination is probably, at 
least, not prevented in this species. 
The method of seed-dispersal in this species is essentially the same as in the 
Meadow Crane’s-bill, and the seeds are minutely pitted or finely reticulate. In 
several related annual species, such as G. molle and G. pusillum, the carpels break 
away from their awns and are jerked to a distance with the seed inside them, and in 
these cases the seeds are smooth. Within the seeds of Geranium there is little or no 
albumen, the radicle is incumbent against the back of one cotyledon, and the two 
cotyledons are convolute, one half of each being folded inside one half of the other. 
This results in the inner halves being less developed, so that the cotyledonary 
leaves are oblique. 
