Geraniacece.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
169 
VII. —GRUINAXES. 
Calyx in prseflorescence imbricate. Corolla twisted in bud, very seldom wanting. 
Stamens definite, oftener monadelpbous than disunited. Placentas axil. Albumen 
copious, scanty or wanting. 
Order GERANIACEJE. 
Juss. Gen. 268. 
Flowers bisexual. Sepals 5, persistent, unequal, imbricated in bud. Petals 5, 
alternate witb the sepals, unguiculate, twisted in bud, deciduous, rarely 1 or 3 
undeveloped. Stamens 10, in Monsonia 15, more or less connate, all fertile or some 
of those opposite to the petals sterile. Anthers two-celled, introrse; cells parallel, 
longitudinally dehiscent. Pollen-grains smooth. Ovaries five-celled. Ovules 2 in 
each cell, one above the other, affixed to the axis. Styles 5, connate into one, 
inwards stigmatose and free towards the summit, long-persistent. Carpels 5, one- 
seeded, bursting at the inner side. Process of the pericarp much lengthened, linear- 
subulate, adnate to the long angular-subulate fruit-axis, at last seceding elastically 
from below upwards, carrying with it the carpel. Albumen wanting. Embryo con- 
duplicate. Cotyledons convolute-plicate or channelled or flat, foliaceous. "Radicle 
descending, vaginated by the endopleura, subulate-conical. 
Herbaceous, less commonly sufirutescent or shrubby plants, frequent in the 
temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, rarer towards the polar regions, very 
abundant in South Africa, scarce 'within and near the tropics, except in colder 
altitudes, rare also in Australia and extratropical America. Stems articulated. 
Leaves opposite, stipulate, sometimes the upper ones very rarely all alternate, never 
truly compound. Peduncles axillary or opposite to alternating leaves, 1- or 2-flowered 
or bearing a simple umbel or very rarely a panicle. Petals glabrous; their color 
various. Eilaments persistent. Anthers fugacious. Prolongations of the pericarp, 
whilst connate with the fragile pentapterous fruit-axis and whilst terminated by the 
more or less lengthened or shortened style, forming a long beak to the fruit. Carpels 
small, alternate with the sepals, usually egg-shaped or club-shaped.— Endl. Gen. 1166; 
Lindl. Veg. Kingd. ed. iii. 493. 
Geraniaceae form a transit from Malvaceae to Oxalidese. No other plants of the 
order than those, noted in these pages, are indigenous in Australia, where moreover 
the absence of very high mountains within the tropic precludes their advancing 
northward. If the tropical-American genera Aulacostigma and Hvpsochloris are 
Y 
