OF ORNAMENTAL EXOTIC PLANTS. 
59 
CHAPTER XXI. 
GERANIACE^ Dec. 
Essential Character. — Calyx permanent, of five sepals; sepals 
more or less unequal, imbricate in sestivation, sometimes one of them 
is drawn out into a hollow spur at the base, which is closely connate to 
the peduncle. Petals five (rarely four, one of which being abortive, 
very rarely absent altogether), unguiculate, alternating with the 
sepals, equal or unequal; in the first they are hypogyuous, in the 
second they are usually inserted in the calyx or connated together. 
Stamens with the filaments rarely fi’ee, but almost always monadel- 
phous at the base, disposed in a simple series, hypogynous or perigy- 
nous, equal or double in number to the petals, rarely triple that 
number, as in Monsonia ; sometimes some of them are sterile, equal or 
unequal. Ovary at first five-celled, ending in a long thick style, 
crowned by five stigmas. Carpels five, rather membranous, indehiscent, 
one-celled, biovulate, at first pressed to the base of the torus, each 
ending in a style or awn, which is closely adnate to the angles of the 
torus, but after maturity twisting variously from the base to the apex, 
and, by their elasticity, separating the carpels from the torus, but still 
adhering at the middle to the top of the torus. Seeds solitary in the 
carpels, pendulous, exalbuminous. Embryo curved, with a deflexed 
radicle directed to the bottom of the carpel, with leafy, convolute, or 
flexuously plicate cotyledons, which arc sometimes lobed. (61 Don.') 
Description, &c. — There are several genera in this order, most of which have been introduced. Those best 
known are the genera Geranium and Pelargonium ; the plants usually called Geraniums belonging chiefly to the 
latter genus, nearly all the species contained in which are greenhouse plants. All the species ai’e herbaceous 
or suffraticose, and the young stems are jointed at the articulations, and easily separable without tearing the outer 
skin. Most of the kinds are fragrant, and the juice of some of them is so astringent that it will blacken a steel 
knife, if one is used to cut through the stem. The carpels of the seed-vessels terminate in long points, which 
grow together like the beak of a bird ; and when the seed is ripe, the carpels separate at the base, and curl up, 
the points remaining attached at the apex. 
GENUS I. 
MONSONIA Lin. THE MONSONIA. 
Lin. Syst. POLYADELPHIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. — Calyx of five equal sepals, with an aivned mucrone at the apex of each. Petals five, equal, twice the size of the 
calyx. Stamens fifteen, disposed in five bundles, containing three anthers in each. {G. Don.) 
Description, &c. — The species in this genus are perennial or biennial plants, with large showy flowers, 
which were common in greenhouses forty or fifty years ago, but are now very seldom met with. The genus is 
named in honom: of Lady Ann Monson, who introduced many curious plants from India, and who assisted 
Mr. Lee, of the Hammersmith Nursery, in writing his Introduction to Botany. 
1.— MONSONIA LOBATA Mont. THE LOBED-LEAVED MONSONIA. 
Synonvmes. — M. filia Lin. fit.; Geranium anemonoides Thunb. Engraving. — Bot. Mag,,, t. 385. 
Specific Character. — Leaves cordate, five to scven-lobed ; lobes blunt, serrated, hairy beneath. 
Description, &c. — The flowers of this plant are very pretty in the bud, but have no beauty comparatively 
when they have expanded, as they generally open mregularly, and, indeed, frequently drop without opening at all, 
particularly if kept in a shady place. It is, indeed, a very difficult plant to grow, or at least to flower, in this 
country, as it requii’es a very powerful degree of light and heat from the sun. It is a native of the Cape of Good 
Hope, and was introduced in 1774. It flowers in April and May. The leaves are very little cut, and the seed- 
vessel has an exceedingly long beak. The plant grows about a foot high. 
