397 
PELARGONIUM malacophyllum. 
Soft-leaved Stork’s-bill. 
P. malacophyllum, foliis rotundato-reniformibus undulatis 
inaequaliter dentatis mollissimis utrinque hirsutis, stipu- 
lis ovatis acutis subdentatis, umbellis numerosis sub- 
quadrifloris, petalis omnibus obovatis, tubo nectarifero 
calyce breviore. 
Stem stout, pubescent, thickly clothed with long villous 
hairs: branches erect, villosely hairy. Leaves large, broader 
than long, roundly kidney-shaped, more or less undulate, 
the large ones overlapping at the base, the smaller ones 
more distinct, unequally toothed with numerous short rigid 
teeth, hairy on both sides, very soft to the touch, feeling 
like soft cloth or velvet, rugged or uneven, strongly nerved 
underneath, the nerves branching all over the leaves. Pe¬ 
tioles flattened and furrowed on the upper side and convex 
on the lower, thickly clothed with unequal spreading hairs. 
Stipules ovate, acute, sometimes toothed, very hairy and 
fringed. Flowers in a sort of terminal panicle, purple. 
Umbels generally four-flowered. Peduncles cylindrical, 
thickly clothed with unequal villous hairs, as is the calyx, 
bractes, and nectariferous tube. Involucre of six ovate 
acute bractes with red membranaceous margins. Pedicles 
about the length of, or sometimes a little longer than the 
bractes, tinged with purple, as is the calyx and nectarife¬ 
rous tube. Calyx 5-cleft, the laciniae lanceolate, acute, 
the upper one largest. Nectariferous tube', scarcely so 
long as the calyx, sometimes very short. Petals 5, all 
obovate, the two upper ones rather broadest and of the 
darkest purple, with a white line or two near the base, from 
which branch numerous dark lines much branched ; lower 
VOL. IV, 2 c 
