PELARGONIUM pulcherrimum.
Beautiful Slork’s-bill.
P. pulcherrimum, pedunculis plurifloris, foliis renifor-
mibus planis obsolete lobatis margine undulatis
insequaliter dentatis basi truncatis, caule erecto
ramosissimo, tubo nectarifero longitudine calycis.
Stem shrubby, erect, very much branched; branches
short, erect, thickly clothed with soft white unequal
hairs. Leaves kidney-shaped, nearly twice as wide as
long, truncate at the base, margins undulate, sharply
and unequally toothed, covered on both sides with very
short hairs ; nerves numerous, much branched. Petioles
slender, longer than the leaves, flattened and furrowed
on the upper side and convex on the lower,
thickly clothed with soft white hairs, as are the peduncles
and calyx. Stipules lanceolate, acute, slightly
fringed. Peduncles cylindrical, several-flowered. Involucre
of 6 short ovate bluntish bractes, ending
abruptly in a short acute point. Pedicles slender,
longer than the nectariferous tube. Calyx 5-cleft, segments
unequal, lanceolate, acute, concave. Nectariferous
tube about the length of the calyx, flattened on
each side and gibbous at the base. Petals 5, the two
upper ones much the widest, roundly obovate, very
unequal at the base, of a bright pink colour stained
with red, with a large dark velvetty spot in the centre,
and numerous dark lines of the same colour which
branch in all directions ; lower petals spatulately obovate,
of a bright rose-colour, stained in the centre
and faintly marked with several lines. Filaments ] 0,
united at the base, 7 bearing anthers. Pollen orangek
2