180
PELARGONIUM flexuosum.
Zigzag-stalked Stork’ s-bill.
V. flexuosum, umbellis multifloris subpaniculatis, foliis
cordato-ovatis incisis dentatis subtus tomentosis,
stipulis lanceolatis acutis subpersistentibus, çaule
crasso flexuoso, tubo nectarifero calyce triplo-don-
giori.
Stem shrubby, succulent, hard, and brittle, flexuose,
scarcely branching. Leaves cordately ovate, deeply
and unequally incised, and toothed with blunt rounded
teeth, tomentose underneath and strongly nerved:
when young, hollowed on the upper side, afterwards
becoming flat. Petioles flattened on the upper side
and rounded on the lower, swollen at the base, and
covered with a short downy pubescence, as are the
peduncles and calyx. Stipules lanceolate, taper-pointed,
partly remaining persistent, when they turn of a
brown horn-colour. Peduncles many-flowered, in a
kind of panicle terminating the stem. Involucre of
from six to eight linear, pointed bractes. Pedicles
short, scarcely half the length of the bractes. Calyx
5-cleft, segments lanceolate, fringed, all reflexed.
Nectariferous tube about three times the length of the
calyx, flattened and furrowed on each side, pubescent.
Petals 5, spreading, the two upper ones obovate, of
an orangy scarlet, and from the base branch numerous
lines in various directions: lower petals ligulate of the
same colour, each marked with a dark spot. Fi'laments
10, united into a tube, seven bearing anthers,
which in our specimens have always been without pollen.
. Style short, red, slightly hairy at the base and
smooth upwards. Stigmas 5, revolute.