360 
PELARGONIUM basilicum. 
Princely Stork? s-bill. 
P. basilicum , ramis erectis villosis, foliis rotundato-cordatis 
acutiusculis subplanis cartilagineo-dentatis utrinque pi¬ 
losis mollibus, stipulis ovatis subdentatis ciliatis, pedun- 
culis subquinquefloris, segmentis calycinis ovatis villo¬ 
sis, tubo nectarifero calyce subsequali. 
Pelargonium basilicum. Swt. hort. brit. addenda, p, 471. 
n. 405. 
Stem shrubby, erect, not much branched: branches 
rather slender, villous, thinly clothed with leaves. Leaves 
roundly cordate, rather pointed, flat, or only a little undu¬ 
late at the edges, unequally toothed, with short but sharp 
rigid horny teeth, hairy on both sides, and fringed; under¬ 
neath many-nerved, the nerves branching. Petioles stout, 
flattened on the upper side, and rounded on the lower, vil¬ 
lous. Stipules ovate, sometimes toothed, densely villous. 
Peduncles cylindrical, villous, generally 5-flowered. Invo¬ 
lucre of 6 roundish ovate villous bractes, which are densely 
fringed with long white hairs. Pedicles longer than the 
bractes. Calyx 5-cleft; segments ovate, scarcely acute, 
concave, villous, erect, or the points a little spreading, of a 
dark green, tinged with brown. Nectariferous tube about 
the length of the calyx, much flattened on each side, and 
gibbous at the base, unequally villous. Petals 5 , the two 
upper ones between obovate and ovate, very unequal sided, 
of a bright dark red, inclining to scarlet, with a black patch 
in the centre, from which and below it are numerous black 
lines, more or less branched, two-nerved at the back, the 
nerves branching: lower petals oblong, with rounded points, 
of a lighter colour, purplish near the base, the upper part 
