170 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[ Geraniacea. 
genuine constituents of tlie order, then the limits of Geraniacese, as adopted here, 
will require considerable extension. Of Balsaminese, an order of the gruinal series, 
no Australian representative came hitherto under notice, although the hiunid moun¬ 
tain regions of North-East Australia, clothed with virgin forest, may perhaps nourish 
species of Impatiens. 
PELARGONIUM. 
EHerit. Geran. tab. —Stork’s-bill. 
Posteinor sepal lengthened into a descending nectar tube , which is innate-decurrent along the 
pedicel. Petals 5, rarely 4 or 2, often unequal. Stamens 10, towards the base monadelphous, unequal. 
Filaments from a dilated base subulate ; the five petaline filaments all or partially destitute of 
anthers; the sepaline filaments devoid of an anterior gland. Awn-like prolongations of the carpels 
spirally seceding from the lengthened fruit-axis. Cotyledons flat or slightly concave-convex, oblong 
or oval. 
Herbaceous, suffruticose or shrubby often strong-scented plants, very numerous in South Africa, 
rare in Abyssinia, represented by a single species in the Taurus Mountains, the Canary Islands, Tristan 
d'Acunha, Australia and New Zealand. Leaves singularly manifold in form (but hardly ever simply 
linear), entire, toothed, lobed or pinnatisected or compound-dissected. Peduncles opposite to the leaves 
or axillary or radical. Pedicels umbellate. Bracteoles forming an involucre. Flowers often very showy, 
easily hybridized, of singularly varied and often vivid colors. Carpels more or less attenuated towards 
the base. Carpellar prolongations at the inner side partially villose.— Endl. Gen. 1168. 
The embryonic notes here for the first time ascribed to the genus seem preponderant, if not 
universal, being manifestly the same in all the species examined on this occasion (viz., P. Australe, 
P. triste, P. tomentosum, P. inquinans, P. coriandrifolium, P. triangulare, P. alchemilloides, P. dasy- 
caulon), and are particularly at variance with those of Geranium. 
Pelargonium Australe, Willd. Spec. Plant, iii. 675; Jacq. Eclog. Plant, i. 149, t. 100; Sweet, 
Geran. t. 68; J. Hook. Flor. Tasm. i. 57; P. inodorum, Willd. Ilort. Berol. t. 34; Sweet, Gemmae, t. 
56; P. glom era turn, Jacq. Eclog. i. 146, t. 98; P. erodioides, Hook. Journ. of Pot. i. 252 ; Wees, in lehm. 
PL Preiss . i. 163; P. Acugnaticum, J. Hook. FI. Tasm. i. 57; P. litorale, Hueg. Bot.Arcliiv.t. 5; Endl 
Enum. Plant. Hueg. 14; P. crinitum, Wees, in Lehm . Plant . Preiss. i. 163. 
Herbaceous, more or less downy', caulescent; root perennial; petioles jointless at the apex; leaves 
cordate or renate- or orbicular-cordate, lobeless or sltort-lobed, crenated; stipules free, membranous, semi- 
lanceolate-deltoid ; umbels many-flowered, rarely few-flowered; leaflets of the involucre membranous , small, 
semilanceolate or subulate-linear, shorter than tlie pedicels ; segments of the calyx herbaceous, lanceolate; 
nectar-tube short ; petals 5, usually small, white or pink, spatlmlate- and cuneate-obovate, about twice as 
long’ as the calyx, entire, sliort-iingaiiculate, upper ones somewhat broader and more copiously veined; 
stamens connate at the base, seven generally fertile, the longest nearly half as long as the petals; filaments 
glabrous, linear-subulate ; anthers purple; pollen orange ; sterile stamens short-subulate ; style short, gla¬ 
brous ; carpels pubescent, obovate-ellipsoid; seeds smooth, oblique-ellipsoid ; raphe about four times shorter 
than the seed; cotyledons oblong, flat. 
Frequent in our colony, on sand-sliores, heath-ground, desert-land, river-banks, ridges and mountains. 
Not less common throughout the greater part of extratropical Australia. 
Ail herb from a few inches to a few feet high. Stems and branches cylindrical, sometimes red, very 
variable in their indument. Petioles almost cylindrical or semiterete ; the upper ones short, the rest more 
