Refugium Botanicum.| (August, 1868. 
ANN Rated 
Natural Order GERANIACEA. 
Tribe PELARGONIES. 
Genus Petarconium, L’ Herit. 
Sect. Hoarra. Acaulis, radicibus magnis, tuberiformibus vel fusiformi- 
bus carnosis, floribus quadri- vel quinque-petalis. 
P. RUTH FOLIUM, n. sp. Petiolis breviter pubescentibus, foliis ligulato- 
lanceolatis pinnis subplanis paullulum pubescentibus late rhom- 
boideis breviter petiolatis contiguis subdichotomo-dissectis divisioni- 
bus primariis paucis divergentibus ultimis linearibus acutis, scapo 
foliis eequante, sepalis linearibus albo-marginatis omnino reflexis, 
petalis calyce eequantibus, superioribus anguste spathulatis citrinis 
contiguis reflexis, inferioribus latioribus rectis carnoso-rubris inter 
se conniventibus. 
A native of the Cape of Good Hope, imported by Mr. Cooper. 
Root roundish or subfusiform, an inch or more thick, with a 
loose brown skin. Leaves all radical, on erect, firm, herbaceous 
petioles one to three inches long, thinly clothed with short, 
spreading, soft, gray hairs; the blade ligulate-lanceolate, four or 
five inches long when fully developed, by twelve to fifteen lines 
broad, the main divisions pinnately arranged, broadly rhom- 
boidal, spreading nearly in a single plane, nearly or quite con- 
tiguous, all except the uppermost with a short distinct stalk, sub- 
dichotomously forked, with divergent main divisions and linear 
acute ultimate segments, about a line broad at the base, the 
texture herbaceous, both sides pale green and slightly and incon- 
Spicuously downy. Scape erect, about equalling the leaves, a 
little downy. Flowers six to twelve in an umbel, which is sur- 
rounded by a whorl of small linear-lanceolate shghtly downy 
bracts ; the fully-developed pedicels nearly an inch long; the 
calyx-tube exceeding the sepals, which are linear-lanceolate, 
slightly pubescent, half an inch long, herbaceous in the middle, 
with a white border, recurved from the base so that their backs 
touch one another when the flower is fully expanded; the two 
upper petals primrose-yellow, veined with bright scarlet in the 
throat, narrowly spathulate, recurved from about two-thirds of 
the way down when the flower is expanded; the three lower ones 
pale flesh-coloured, as long as the upper ones and rather broader, 
