or Rrpederreaio th (44 G. R.UQLi Ho’ a FT -Paet- (zu 
12282. 
5384 GERANIACEAE. [Geranium. 
6. G. sessiliflorum Cav. Diss. (1787) 198, t. 77, f. 2.— A depressed 
almost stemless perennial, more or less covered with spreading or retrorse 
silky hairs. Rootstock stout and woody, often branched above. Leaves 
mostly radical, numerous, crowded, on long slender petioles ; blade 4-2 in. 
diam., orbicular, deeply divided into 3-5-toothed or -lobed segments ; stipules 
broad, membranous. Flowering stems very short or quite undeveloped. 
Peduncles usually 1-flowered, short, seldom equalling the leaves. Flowers 
small. Sepals oblong, shortly awned, silky. Petals white, exceeding the 
sepals. Carpels even, minutely hairy. Seeds smooth, not reticulated.— 
Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 36; Benth. Fl. Austral. i (1863) 297 ; T. Kirk 
Students’ Fl. (1899) 80; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 89; Kunth m 
Pflanzenr. Heft 53 (1912) 83. | 
Var. glabrum Kunth in Engl. Bot, Jahrb, xxxvii (1906) 565. — Peduncles and 
petioles pilose with adpresséd retrorse hairs. Leaves glabrescent. 
Norra AND Sourn Isnanps, Stewart IstanD: Not uncommon from the Lower 
Waikato southwards, ascending to 3000 ft. Also in Victoria, Tasmania, and temperate 
South America. 
Easily distinguished from all the other species by the small size, stemless habit, 
and even seeds. 
2. PELARGONIUM L’Herit. 177 
Herbs or shrubs. Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, entire toothed 
lobed or variously divided. Flowers usually in few- or many-flowered 
umbels on axillary peduncles, irregular. Sepals 5, the uppermost produced 
into a short spur adnate to the pedicel. Petals 5 or fewer by abortion, 
the 2 upper different from the others and usually larger. Disc without 
elands. Stamens 10, hypogynous, connate at the base, 5-7 (rarely fewer) 
fertile, the remainder without anthers or rudimentary. Ovary 5-lobed, 
5-celled, beaked ; beak terminated by 5 short styles, which are longitudinally 
stizmatose; ovules 2 in each cell. Capsule splitting into 5 carpels with 
long styles, which roll up elastically ; seeds 1 in each carpel. 
Species about 200, most of which are South African, but a few are Mediterranean. 
Four species are Australian, one of which extends to New Zealand. 
1. P. inodorum Willd. Enum. ii (1809) 702.—A decumbent or erect 
simple or branched more or less hairy herb 6-18 in. high ; rootstock stout, 
Leaves on slender petioles 2-6 in. long; blade 1-2 in. diam., ovate-cordate 
or orbicular-cordate, obscurely 3-5-lobed; lobes finely crenate-serrate, 
obtuse; stipules broad. Peduncles longer than the leaves; umbels 
10-12-flowered. Flowers small, 1-4in. diam., pink. Sepals ovate, acute, 
hairy; spur usually very short. Petals from + to } as long again as the 
sepals, spathulate, notched. Fertile stamens 5, the remainder reduced to 
membranous scale-like staminodia. Carpels very hairy, their beaks long, 
lined on the inner face with long soft white hairs——Pers. Syn. ii (1807) 229 , 
DC. Prodr. i (1824) 659. P. australe var. erodioides Benth. Fl. Austral. 1 
(1863) 299. P. australe var. clandestinum Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 37. 
P. australe Willd. Sp. Plant. iii (1800) 675; T. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 82 ; 
Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 91. P. clandestinum L’Her. ex DC. l.c. 660 ; 
A. Cunn. Precur. (1839) n. 595; Raoul Choia (1846) 47; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. 
Zel. 1 (1853) 41. 
Norra anp Souru Isnanps, Stewart IsLanp, CuarHam Istanps: Abundant 
from the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards, ascending to 2500 ft. 
Kopata. © November—February. | 
Although I have followed Kunth in placing this under P. inodorum, I have grave 
doubts as to whether it would not have been better to keep it under 7. australe, as 
Hooker and Kirk left it. 
