676. 1753.

Herbs with stipulate palmately lobed, cleft or parted leaves, and axillary 1-2-flowered peduncles. Flowers regular, 5-merous. Sepals 5, imbricated. Petals 5, hypogynous, imbricated. Stamens 10 (rarely 5), generally 5 longer and 5 shorter. Ovary 5-lobed, 5-celled, beaked with the compound style. Ovules 2 in each cavity. Capsule elastically dehiscent, the 5 cavities I-seeded, long-tailed. [Greek, a crane, from the long beak of the fruit.]

About 190 species, widely distributed in temperate regions. Besides the following, some 60 others occur in North America. Type species: Geranium sylvąticum L.

Perennial; flowers 1' broad or more.

Beak of the fruit, and pedicels, glandular-pubescent.

1.

G. pratense.

Beak of the fruit, and pedicels, pubescent, but not glandular.

2.

G. maculatum.

Annuals or biennials; flowers 2"-6" broad.

Peduncles 1-flowered.

3.

G. sibiricum.

Peduncles 2-flowered.

Peduncles longer than the leaves; carpels smooth and glabrous.

4.

G. columbinuni.

Peduncles short; carpels rugose or hairy.

Seeds reticulated or pitted.

Glandular-pubescent with long white hairs.

5.

G. rotundifolium.

Pubescent with short hairs; leaves deeply lobed.

Flowers pale purple; seeds minutely reticulated.

Beak short-pointed; inflorescence compact.

6.

G. carolinianum.

Beak long-pointed; inflorescence loose.

7.

G. Bicknellii.

Flowers deep purple; seeds deeply pitted.

8.

G. dissectum.

Seeds smooth or nearly so.

Stamens 5; carpels hairy, not rugose.

9.

G. pusillum.

Stamens 10: carpels glabrate, rugose.

10.

G. molle.

1. Geranium Praténse L. Meadow Geranium

Fig. 2652

Geranium pratense L. Sp. Pl. 681. 1753.

Perennial by a stout rootstock. pubescent with spreading or retrorse short hairs, erect, 1°-2 1/2° high. Basal leaves long-petioled, reni-form or orbicular-reniform in outline and decidedly pentagonal, mostly 4'-5' wide, 5-7-parted, the divisions narrower, more attenuate and more finely cut than in G. maculatum; stem-leaves usually with narrower divisions and teeth than the basal leaves; peduncles elongated, glandular-pubescent like the pedicels which are very variable in length; flowers deep-purple, 1 1/4'-1 3/4' broad; petals ciliate at the base; beak of the fruit 3/4'-1' long; carpels minutely pubescent; seeds reticulate.

In meadows and fields, New Brunswick and Quebec to Maine and Massachusetts. Adventive from Europe. June-Aug.

1 Geranium Prat Nse L Meadow Geranium 994

Geranium pyrenąicum L., of Europe, a perennial with much smaller flowers, the sepals obtusish, has been found in waste places in Quebec and Pennsylvania.