THE WATER AVENS— continued. 
there are shorter glandular hairs ; but below the attachment of the upper joint the 
styles are glabrous. The two joints are nearly equal and the lower part of the 
deciduous upper joint is very hairy. 
These characters serve to explain the names given to the plant by the older 
botanical writers, all of whom, before Linnaeus, knew it as Caryophyllaia. Thus Lobel 
called it Caryophyllaia septentrionalium rotundifolia, papposo flore, or “ Round-leaved 
Clove-root of the north with a pappose flower.” Clusius named it Caryophyllaia 
montana, nutanie Jlore, or “ Mountain Clove-root with a nodding flower ” ; Camerarius 
terms it Caryophyllaia aquaiica, or “ Water Clove-root ” ; and Johnson, Caryophyllaia 
monlana purpurea, or “Red-flowered mountain Clove-root.” 
We well remember, thirty years ago, our pleasure in finding a double redder- 
flowered variety growing by the Water of Leith just where it winds out into the more 
level ground after leaving the Pentland Hills. This variation is stated by Sir James 
Edward Smith to be not infrequent in mountainous countries and to be “ readily 
produced by transplanting the wild roots into a dry gravelly soil.” The carpophore 
is also often elongated, when the sepals become more leafy. This variety is entirely 
distinct from the Geum inlermedium of Ehrhart, which is almost certainly a hybrid, 
resulting from the pollination of the stigmas of G. rivale with the pollen of 
G. urhanum. It has much of the habit of G. rivale; but with a more deeply cut 
terminal leaflet, larger cauline leaves and stipules, green calyx and yellow petals, 
larger than those of G. urhanum, but not so large as those of G. rivale. Sir James 
Edward Smith says that he suspected that it “might be a variety oi rivale, caused by 
the pollen of urhanum ” ; and the fact that it is found not infrequently associated with 
G. rivale but not with G. urhanum renders this parentage more probable than the 
reciprocal cross, i.e. the pollinating of G. urhanum by G. rivale. The crossing of 
G. rivale by G. urhanum is said to have been produced artificially, and the hybrids are 
reported to have proved fertile. The chief difficulties as to this hybridism being 
produced by insects is the want of similarity in the colour of the flowers of the two 
parent species ; but there may be an identity in the smell of their nectar which is 
perceptible to the insect’s sense of smell, though not to ours. 
A considerable number of more showy species of Getim are cultivated in our 
borders and rock-gardens, several of them having large semi-double blossoms of a 
brilliant scarlet, or feathery-tailed heads of achenes of a purple or reddish-brown 
colour. The best are, perhaps, the alpine G. monianum Linne, sometimes placed 
in another genus Sieversia; G. coccineum Sibthorp and Smith, from the Balkan 
Peninsula ; and G. chiloense Balbis from the island of Chiloe. 
