PELARGONIUM. 
concave, permanent; upper fegment, ending in a capil¬ 
lary nectariferous tube, decurrent along the peduncle. 
Corolla: petals five, obcordate or ovate, fpreading, large, 
irregular. Stamina : filaments ten, awl-fhaped, united at 
the bafe, fpreading at top, unequal in length, all fhorter 
than the corolla, three of them (feldom five) callrated ; 
anthers feven, oblong, verfatile. Piftillum: germ five 
cornered, beaked ; ftyle awl-fhaped, longer than the fta- 
mens, permanent: ftigmas five, reflex. Pericarpium: 
capfule five-grained, beaked, the cells opening inwards ; 
the beak fpiral, bearded on the infide. Seeds folitary, 
ovate-oblong .—Effential ChuraEler. Calyx five-parted, 
the upper fegment ending in a capillary nectariferous 
tube running along the peduncle; corolla five petalled, 
filaments ten, unequal, three of which (feldom five) are 
caftrated ; fruit five-grained, beaked; beak fpiral, 
bearded within. 
This vaftand favourite genus, for which we are almoft 
entirely indebted to the Cape of Good Hope, confifts of 
a great number of well-marked fpecies. But that num¬ 
ber is greatly augmented, in almoft every book, by the 
admiifion of fpurious hybrid fpecies or varieties, which 
continually ftart up from feed wherever many of the pri¬ 
mary ones are cultivated, and are for a while propagated 
by cuttings, or even by feed. Sooner or later, however, 
they for the moft part vanifh, even before the eyes of 
thole who witnefled their origin. Willdenow defines 120 
fpecies, feveral of which we know to have been the pro¬ 
duction of European gardens; of thefe Mr. Profeflor 
Martyn, in his edition of Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary, 
has admitted 82, which are divided into five diftinCt flec¬ 
tions, with about eight-and-twenty mifcellaneous fpecies 
at the end. All thefe plants have rather a flefhy habit, 
and more or lei's of a peculiar (cent, in fome inftances ex- 
quifitely agreeable. Some are herbaceous, with a tube¬ 
rous root, that fupplies the place of the fhrubby Item ob- 
fervable in moft of the others. Their foliage is moftly 
downy, fometimes glaucous. Flowers more or lefs um¬ 
bellate, rarely endowed with any fcent, except what 
arifes from the herbage; though fome, whole colours are 
of the yellowifh-green or lurid kind, are delicioufly fra¬ 
grant at night. The prevailing colour, throughout the 
greater part of the genus, is crimfon, fcarlet, or light 
purple, in various beautiful fhades and combinations, 
often intermingled with white; yellow and blue are both 
equally rare in this natural order, and the latter fcarcely 
occurs at ail in the genus of which we are treating. 
Every known fpecies, except perhaps one or two, is pe¬ 
rennial. They are greenhoufe plants in England, flow¬ 
ering at various fealons, and conducing greatly to the 
ornament of a collection. In fome few inftances the 
number of petals, as well as of the ftamens, differs a little 
from the generic deflcription. 
The diftinCtions between this genus and thofe of Ero- 
dium and Geranium, into which the natural genus or fa¬ 
mily of Geranium is now divided, may be feen under the 
effential characters of the refpeCtive genera ; and the 
reafons for the modern divifion, together with the cir- 
cutnftances of agreement in the feveral branches of this 
natural family, are given under Geranium, vol. vii. 
I. Stemlefs; root turnip-like; umbels compound. 
1. Pelargonium hirfutum, or various leaved ftork’s- 
bill: leaves obovate or lanceolate, quite entire or pinna- 
tifid, rough-haired, ciliate. Root turbinate, perpendicu¬ 
lar, at the upper part thickened and imbricate as it were 
with red ftipules. Stem none, except peduncles or fcapes, 
on which there is one leaf near the origin of the umbels. 
Root-leaves numerous, fome ovate almoft entire, others 
laciniate and as it were pinnate, and all petioled. Sti¬ 
pules oblong, fattened to the bafe of the petiole, bifid. 
Flowers umbelled ; fcape radical, two inches high, and 
divided into three or more pedicels; corolla frnall, papi¬ 
lionaceous, pale in dried fpecimens, but, according to 
Burman, dark purple. Capfules five, fhort, tomentofe: 
489 
the beak fcarcely half an inch in length, Introduced in 
1788, by Mr. Francis Maflon. It flowers in March. 
2. Pelargonium pinnatum, or pinnated ftork’s-bill: 
umbel fubcompound; leaves pinnate j leaflets roundifh- 
ovate, undivided, hirfute on both Aides. Root thick, 
yellowifh, defcending, having few fibres. Stem fcarcely 
any, except the fcapes, which have fometimes leaves, 
fometimes none. Leaves long, often with an odd leaf¬ 
let : leaflets about fixteen, fubfeflile, ovate-acute, afh-co- 
loured. Corolla papilionaceous, reddifh - white, with 
deeper-coloured veins. Introduced in 1788 by Maflon. 
It flowers in April. 
3. Pelargonium rapaceum, or caraway-leaved ftork’s- 
bill : leaves decompoundedly laciniate, villofe. Root 
flefhy, tw'o inches thick and more, confifting of feveral 
irregular tubers, and frequently half a foot in width, 
white within, purple on the outfide, covered with a brown- 
ifh bark, and perennial. Root-leaves very many, hairy 
all over, from fix inches to a foot and more in length, but 
fcarcely two inches wide. Flowers without fcent; calyx 
filky and ciliate, green ; petals at firft whitifh, but after¬ 
wards rofe-coloured ; the two upper ones having blood- 
red fpots at their bafe ; filaments pale; antherae and ftig- 
ma purple. Introduced in 1788 by Maflon. It flowers 
here in April. 
II. Almoft ftemlefs; root tuberous. 
4. Pelargonium lobatuin, or vine-leaved ftork’s-bill: 
ftemlefs; umbel compound; leaves ternate or quinate, 
lobed, tomentofe. This has tuberous roots, from which 
come out three or four broad leaves, divided into feveral 
lobes like a vine-leaf, fpreading flat on the ground, cre- 
nated, on fhort foot-ftalks. Peduncles immediately 
from the root, about a foot high, naked, terminated by "a 
bunch of dark-purple flowers, with long tubes, feflile, and 
having a very agreeable odour in the evening. Cultiva¬ 
ted in 1739, > n the botanic garden atChelfea. It flowers 
in July and Auguft. 
5. Pelargonium trifle, or night-fmelling ftork’s-bill : 
fubcaulefcent; umbel Ample; leaves multifid-laciniate, 
villofe; fegments lanceolate. Root thick, roundifh, tu¬ 
berous, with feveral hairy leaves fpringing from it, which 
are finely divided, almoft like thofe of the garden-carrot; 
they fpread near the ground, and among them come out 
the Italics, about a foot high, having two or three leaves 
of the fame fort, but fmaller and fitting clofe; from the 
ftalksarife two or three naked peduncles, terminated by 
a bunch of yellowifh flowers, marked with dark purple 
fpots, which fmell very fweet after the fun has left them. 
It was introduced before 1632, by Mr. John Tradefcant, 
fen. Johnfon faw it in flower about the end of July 
1632, being the firft time that it flowered with the 
owner. 
6. Pelargonium flavum, or carrot-leaved ftork’s-bill: 
fubcaulelcent; umbels Ample ; leaves decompoundedly la¬ 
ciniate, hirfute ; fegments linear. This is a rough-haired 
plant. The leaves are multifid, like thofe of carrot, 
often a fpan long, petioled, pale green, fmelling fweet 
when handled, covered with very-fpreading long diftant 
hairs on both Aides. Peduncle obliquely afcending, gib¬ 
bous at the bafe, covered with longer thicker hairs than 
the other parts, fuftnining nine or ten flowers. Corolla 
ftraw-white; petals wedge-lhaped, the two upper ones 
wider, with an oblong purple fpot; the three lower nar¬ 
rower, with two purple diverging ftreaks. Cultivated in 
the Apothecaries’ garden at Chelfea in 1724; it flowers 
from July to September. 
III. Herbaceous or fuffruticofe. 
7. Pelargonium tabulare, or rough-ftalked ftork’s-bill: 
peduncles few-flowered; leaves roundifh-cordate, five- 
lobed, blunt; Items decumbent, hairy. Refembles Ge¬ 
ranium zonale, but the greateft part of the Item perilhes 
above the root. Cavanilles defcribes it under the name 
of G. elongatum : it varies with a biennial Item, un- 
fpotted 
