172 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Geranmece. 
within the tropics, one species only indigenous to Australia. Leaves usually longer than broad, simply 
or doubly pinnatisected, or cleft into 3-5 longer or shorter lobes, toothed besides. Peduncles axillary, 
or opposite to the leaves or alar, or radical, sometimes 1 - or 2 -flowered, often umbelliferous. Pedicels 
bibracteolate at the base, forming to the umbels an involucre. Petals pink, purple, blue or white. 
Carpellar prolongations inside villose, rarely glabrous. Carpels obverse subulate-conical.— Endl. Gen, 
1166. 
Erodium cyg’norum, Nees, in Lehm . Plant . Preiss, i. 162. 
Annual, short-hairy ; stipules deltoid- or semilanceolate-ovate ; leaves trisected , or the lower ones trifid, 
short- and appressed-hairy; lobes almost rhomboid, blunt, coarsely and unequally toothed, entire towards 
the base ; the upper lobe the largest and trifid, the lateral lobes somewhat bifid; peduncles 1 - 2 -floweredor 
oftener umbellate few-flowered; sepals short-cuspidate; petals blue , ciliolate towards the base; fertile fila¬ 
ments glabrous , to above the middle ovate-lanceolate, thence linear-setaceous , toothless , considerably longer 
than the pointless staminodia ; pistil silky; carpellar prolongations outside short-hispidulous; carpels hispid ; 
seeds fulvid-rufous ; cotyledons lobeless. 
As well in fertile as barren localities, not rare in many parts of the colony; extending Anther over 
almost the whole extratropical part of the Australian Continent, being found as far north as the Murchison 
River on the west coast and northward to the 26° S.L. on the east coast ; not observed in either Tasmania 
or New Zealand. 
An herb of erect, diffuse or procumbent habit, sometimes stemless. Root descending, cylindrical, usually 
with few fibrillae. Stems, as well as the branches, petioles, peduncles and pedicels, clothed with short grey 
recumbent spreading* or ascendent glandless hair. Stipules membranous, ciliate, 1-2 lines long, sometimes 
into interpetiolary ones concrete. Lower petioles elongated, upper ones gradually shorter. Leaves measuring 
from 1 - 2 b inches, beneath more densely liispidulous than above ; the lobes towards the base cuneate and 
entire and without interjacent teeth or lobules ; some of the radical leaves occasionally cordate-ovate and 
lobeless. Peduncles from 5 to several inches long. Bracteoles usually deltoid-lanceolate, ciliated, acuminated, 
sometimes blunt. Pedicels A-li inch long, when fruit-bearing* horizontal or declinate. Calyx when flower¬ 
hearing 2-3 lines long, when fruit-hearing about half longer; its segments tliree-nerved, outside downv, 
inside smooth, diaphanous at the margin. Petals cuneate-obovate, about as long as the calyx or half longer. 
Fertile filaments 1^-2 lines long, setaceous, prominent at the inner side of their membranous wings. Stami¬ 
nodia often several times shorter than the fertile stamens, scale-like, membranous, somewhat lacerous at the 
apex. Anthers yellowish, about J line long, with ellipsoid cells. Pollen-grains yellow, spherical, smooth, 
stigmas terminating the rostrum, J— J hue long*, glabrous. Carpels 2i— 3| lines long, obverse conical- - 
subulate, more densely hairy towards the base, opening longitudinally by a narrow slit, impressed with two 
foveoles at the summit, long retaining the seed. Awn-like prolongations of the carpel 1J -3 inches long, at 
the inner side densely silky downy, towards the middle long and rather sparingly villose with pale or brown 
hair, spirally twisted from the base to the middle, seceding usually for some distance downward from the 
summit previous to their secession from the base upwards. Seeds clavate, li-2 lines long, smooth, opaque. 
Raphe hardly longer than one-third of the seed. Radicle descending, conical-subulate, appressed to the 
cotyledons, partially vagiuated by the endopleura. Cotyledons amygdaloid, slightly eoncurved, oblong, short- 
stipitate, broader towards the base. 
The affinity of tills plant to E. gruinum is so great, that it remains doubtful whether the assumed 
distinctions will prove specifically valid. The distinctive characters of E. gruinum amount to the following. 
The lobes of the leaves are acuminate or acute, larger and towards the base also toothed; the flowers are 
larger, the sepals longer cuspidate, the wings of the fertile filaments slightly truncate at the summit. E. 
serotinum is perennial, has many-flowered peduncles and also large flowers and acute leaves. In Mitchell’s 
U tropical Australia, p. 300, our plant is recorded as allied to E. litoreum. E. malnchoides differs in lobeless 
