NOTES. 
ON PELARGONIUM EAPACEUM, JACQ.— We know a few 
plants such as Collinsia, of widely separated orders, the flowers of 
which are interesting in showing the adaptations for fertilization charac- 
teristic of the Papilionaceae ; one which has more or less escaped 
notice is Pelargonium rapaceum , a native of South Africa. As a 
polypetalous plant it may indicate to us a course of evolution more 
parallel to that of the Papilionaceae than that of such a gamopetalous 
plant as Collinsia. 
The plants which I have been able to observe were grown in the 
Royal Gardens, Kew, the roots having been received from Professor 
MacOwan of Cape Town. The following is a description of the 
floral mechanism as seen in them. 
On the end of a common peduncle, 8-14 inches long, is produced 
an umbel of ten to twenty flowers : these mature in succession at short 
intervals, perhaps a third or a half of the total number being open 
at the same time, but, owing to the strongly marked protandry, in 
different conditions. The colour of the flower is primrose-yellow 
with short longitudinal red lines (honey-guides?) on the two upper 
petals. These two upper petals are bent back below the middle and 
represent the standard ; the two lateral petals form wings, while the 
anterior petal is folded on itself to construct a keel. In the modi- 
fication of the three lower petals, auricled and clawed at the base, lies 
the chief interest. 
In the Papilionaceae it will be remembered that the keel is boat- 
shaped and so narrowed into its two claws that a very free movement 
of depression is permitted : this too is the case in P elargonium 
rapaceum , the single claw — for here we have only one petal — forming 
a short curved spring. Again, in the Papilionaceae the narrow bases 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XIII. No. XLIX. March, 1899.] 
N 3 
