2648
G E R A N I U M purpureum.
Sea Crane’s-bill.
MONADELPHIA Decandria.
Gen. Char. Calyx 5-leaved. Petals 5, regular.
Nectary 5 glands. Fruit beaked, separating
into 5 capsules, each tipped with a long recurved
naked awn.
Spec. Char. Stalks 2-flowered. Leaves somewhat
pedate, pinnatifid, 5-angled. Calyx 10-angled,
with glandular hairs. Capsules naked, wrinkled,
simply keeled. Petals obovate, nearly equal to
the calyx.
Syn. Geranium purpureum. Kill. Dauph. v. 3.
374. t. 40.
G. Raii. Lindl. Syn. 57.
G. Robert-ianum ß. Huds. Fl. Angl. 305. Sm. FI.
Br. 732. Engl. FI. v. 3. 236.
G. lucidum saxatile, foliis Geranii Robertiani D.
Sherard. Raii Syn. ed. 2. 218. ed. 3. 358.
T h i s Geranium has been long known as a British plant,
and was considered a distinct species, until united by Hudson
to G. Robertianum. Many years’ observation in a garden
where it has become naturalized without alteration, proves
that Yillars did right in again separating it from that species.
It oceurs on the sea-shore in different parts of the
kino-dom. Sherard found it near Swanning, Dorsetshire;
Dillenius on the shore of Selsey Island, Sussex; and I
have gathered it at Aberystwith, Cardiganshire. The specimen
here figured was communicated by Mr. Borrer, from
Stokes Bay, Hampshire ; he has glso lately observed it in
Dillenius’s station.
Root fibrous, annual. Stems spreading, recumbent,
red, brittle, succulent, hairy. Leaves opposite, ternate,