174 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[ GeranxacecB. 
Frequent throughout our colony, occupying* most varied places, soils and elevations, ascending to alpine 
altitudes; not less common in most other parts of extratropical Australia, ceasing* at about the 27 parallel 
of S.L. ; abundant in most parts of Europe; recognized as also indigenous to many parts of Asia and of 
America, found likewise in New Zealand and the antarctic islands 3 probably dispersed over many other parts 
of the globe. 
Root in this climate perennial, generally simple and more or less napiform, sometimes divided into 
many cylindrical branches, outside blackish- or squalid-brown, used as food by the aboriginal natives. Stems 
dichotomously branched, weak and lax, usually many from each root, short or extending to various lengths 
reaching to fully 3 feet, rarely not developed, almost semicyhndrical, slightly channelled along the inner 
side, clothed as well as the petioles, peduncles and pedicels, with longer or shorter spreading or repressed 
greyish hair. Stipules 1-3 lines long, one-nerved, thinly hairy, rarely some ovate- or even deltoid-lanceolate. 
Lower and lowest petioles considerably longer than the leaves, middle and upper ones gradually less W. 
Leaves measuring from §-2 inches, alternately one of each pair smaller and shorter stalked, on both sides 
clothed more or less densely or scantily with often accumbent hair of varied length, beneath sometimes of red 
hue; a midnerve procurrent through each main partition and a lateral nerve through each secondary or tertiary 
lobe; all divisions oftener blunt than acute. Peduncles slender, often longer than the leafstalks, sometimes 
however quite undeveloped, ag*ain in luxurious specimens from humid subtropical forests attaining a length 
of fully 7 inches. Pedicels variable in length, occurring exceptionally as long as 2± inches, when geminate 
one a little shorter than the other, solitary and geminate pedicels occasionally observed on the same branch. 
Bracteoles 2 at the base of each pedicel. Sepals usually 2—3 lines long, in luxurious specimens 4| lines lono-; 
the two inner narrower lanceolate, the three outer broad- or ovate-lanceolate, all three-nerved, usually green, 
inside glabrous, at the margin with longer hair, at the outer side with very short down; the cuspis short or 
almost obliterated. Petals glabrous, membranous, in exceptional cases as long as J inch. Filaments short, 
persistent, from a dilated base linear-subulate; the sepaline ones a little longer. Anthers at first yellowish 
and cordate-orbicular, erect, dorsifixed, afterwards versatile and assuming a more oblong form, bursting with 
lateral slits, early dropping. Pollen-gTains globular, smooth. Anterior staminal glands opposite to the sepals, 
roundish, carnulent, green, glabrous, faintly confluent into a five-lobed disk. Styles crowning the fruit-beak 
and continuous with it, yellow or red, 1-2 lines long. Carpels alternate with the sepals, usually little longer 
than 1 line, in gigantic forest plants however about 2 lines long, oblique-ovate, not breaking from nor 
articulated with the awn-like prolongations, with which they are outside short-downy, inside smooth; basis 
of pericarp at the inner side bearded with a tuft of white hair. Beak of the fruit long-subulate, formed by 
the coalescence of the carpellar prolongations with the acutely five-angular slender glabrous axis, 5-16 lines 
iong*; the latter persistent, transient into the styles, which are connate at the base, outside slightly appressed- 
hairy, from which although also continuous with them the valvular prolongations finally break off. Seed 
varying from broad-ovate to ellipsoid, often more or less trigonous and slightly renate, filling almost the 
cavity and long retained in the carpel after secession. Testa brown-black, opaque. Raphe nearly half as long 
as the seed. Cotyledons as typical cordate-orbicular, emarginate at the summit, lobeless, slightly fleshy. 
Accoiding to Elliot, as mentioned in Torrey and Gra} r ’s Flora of North America, occasionally both 
o' u * es are mature d the carpel. The description of this plant now offered is founded solely on Australian 
specimens. 
G. molle, found in New Zealand according to Dr. Hooker, differs in larger stipules, in somewhat 
wrinkled carpels and a smooth testa. G. pusillum differs in having five of its filaments deprived of anthers. 
But the manifold Australian varieties seem to obliterate completely the limits between G. dissectum and 
G. columbinum. The carpels of the latter are not always perfectly smooth, whilst luxuriant specimens 
of G. dissectum show fully as strong* an extension of the style beyond the rostrum as is normal in G. colum- 
bmum. The midnerve of the carpel is hardly more prominent in the one than in the other, nor offers the 
indument of the lostrum reliable marks of discrimination. G. brevicaule, restricted to highland plains, in 
