E R O D I U M maritimum.
Sea Stork' s-bill.
MON A D E L P H I A Pentandria.
G en . Char. Cal. five-leaved. Petals five. Honey-
glands five. Barren filaments five. Fruit beaked,
feparating into five capfules, each tipped with a
long fpiral awn, bearded on the infide.
Spec. Char. Flower-fialks barely three-flowered.
Leaves heart fhaped, cut, crenate, rough. Stems
clofe-prefied to the earth.
Syn . Erodium maritimum. L'Herit. in A it. Hort.
Kew. v . 2. 416.
Geranium maritimum. Linn. Sp. PI. 951. Hudf. 301.
With. 606. Hull. 153. Dickfi. H. Sicc.fafic. n . n .
G. pufillum fupinum maritimum, Althaeas aut Be-
tonicae folio noftras. Raii Syn. 356.
A NATIVE of fandy fea-fhores in feveral parts of the kingdom,
flowering from May to September. Our fpecimens were
gathered in Cornwall, at St. Michael’s Mount, the Lizard
Point, and other places.
Root perennial. Stems lying clofe to the ground, fpreading
in every direction to a great extent, round, leafy, hairy, rather
fucculent. Leaves on long foot-fialks, with a pair of purple
membranous ftipulse at their bafe, Ample, ovate, or heart-
fhaped, cut and notched, clothed with deprefied hairs. Flowers
very fmall, a or 3 on a ftalk, but often folitary. Calyx tipped
with glandular awns. Petals oblong, narrow, unequal, fhorter
than the calyx, flefli-coloured. Stamina 3, with flefh-coloured
antherae, and 3 barren filaments ranged alternately with them.
Capfules inverfely conical, fharp at the bafe, hairy, crowned
with a fpiral awn, whofe infide is clothed with filky hairs.
The herb has a ftrong fmell, like molt of the Geranium tribe.
We think M. L ’Heritier has fhewn great judgment in fe-
parating this genus from Geranium, as well as Pelargonium,
and that the above characters fufficiently diftinguifh it.