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G E R A N I U M pratenfe.
Crowfoot-leaved Cranejbill.
M O N A D E L P H I A .Decandria.
G en. C har. Style i . Petals 3, regular. Neftary 5
glands at the bafe of the longer ftamina. Fruit
beaked, feparating into 3 feed-cafes, each tipped
with a long limple naked awn.
S pec. Char. Stalks two-flowered. Petals entire.
Leaves wrinkled, fomewhat peltate, 5-lobed, in
many acute fegments. Seed-cafes even, hairy.
Syn. Geranium pratenfe. Linn. Sp. PI. 9 5 4 * Hudf,
FI. An. 302. With. Pot. Arr. 728. ed. 3. 606.
Relh. Cant.- 261. Sibth. Ox. 212. Curt. Lond.
fa fc. 4, t. 49.
G . batrachoides. Rail Syn. 360.
] M e a d o w s and paftures, in the hilly parts of England
chiefly,.are ornamented with the flowers of this fine Geranium,
from the middle of June till the end of July; it grows alfo in •
fome places about London, as Batterfea, Harrow, &c.
The root is perennial, with long ftrong fibres. Stems 2 feet
or more in height, eredt, round, flightly hairy, red and fwelled at
the bafe, branched above in a forked manner, with a leaf or two
at each fubdivifion, accompanied by one or two pair of brown
lanceolate ftipulse. Leaves in1 5, rarely 7, principal very deep
divifions, which are alfo deeply and fharply pinnatifid and cut,
wrinkled and downy on both fides; paler beneath. The radical
ones on long foot-ftalks. Flower-ftalks long, two-flowered, with
4 bradteae, like the ftipulse, at their divifion. Petals large, obo-
vate, veiny, hairy at the bafe. Stamina all perfedt. Seed-cafes
even, hairy, flightly keeled. Seeds finely dotted.
All folid marks of diftindtion between this and G. fylvaticum
(t. 121) fail us, except that the leaves of the latter are much lefs
deeply cut. The termination of the petals is variable in both, but
thofe of G. fylvaticum are moll inclined to be notched. In appearance
the two plants differ confiderably.
G. pratenfe is found occafionally with white or ftriped petals;
but its rnoft curious variety is that with double flowers, difco-
vered by Lady Charlotte Murray in 1793 near Athol Houfe,
Scotland, and fent to Lady Banks, with whom it preferves its
original appearance. We do not recoiled!: another inftance of
the kind in this genus.
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