cut in a pedate manner, their outline unequally 5-angled,
fleshy, shining, hairy. Stalks lateral and terminal,
each bearing two small purplish red flowers. Calyx
10-angled, swollen, covered with short glandular hairs.
Mr. J. DeC. Sowerby observes that two of the sepals are
3-ribbed, one 2-ribbed, and two have one rib each,
forming the ten angles. Petals -obovate, of the size of
Geranium lucidum, rather less than the calyx, the lamina
always shorter, purplish red, veins three, indistinctly whitish.
Stamens awl-shaped, smooth. Capsules obovate,
naked, simply keeled, strongly wrinkled. It may be easily
distinguished from G. Robertianum, by the smallness of
every part except the fruit and calyx, by the more shining
and more fleshy leaves, the glandular hairs on the calyx,
the naked but more strongly wrinkled capsules, and by
the shape, colour, and proportionate size of the petals. In
that species the hairs on the calyx are scattered, lpng, and
without glands; the capsules downy; the petals nearly
obcordate, always considerably larger than the calyx; the
colour much paler and the veins more evidently white.
It is difficult to account for the calyx being described by
Villars as having cross ridges like G. lucidum, as they do
not appear to have been seen by any other botanist. It
should be remarked that he has not figured them, and that
liis words are “ Le calice a quelquefois des rides transver-
sales sensibles, outre ses cotes transversales,” authorising
a suspicion that it was some accidental appearance which
this author observed. The transverse wrinkles on the
upper part of the capsule described by Willdenow as three,
do not appear confined to that number. The leaves of
both species are in shape precisely similar.
The specific character of G. Robertianum, t. I486, may
be thus altered :—
Stalks 2-flowered. Leaves somewhat pedate, pinnati-
fid, 5-angled. Calyx 10-angled, with long hairs. Capsules
downy, wrinkled, simply keeled. Petals somewhat obcordate,
longer than the calyx.—E. Forster.