PELARGONIUM pentastictum.
Five-marked Stork’s-bill.
P. pentastictum, radice ramoso-tuberoso, caule suffruti-
coso carnoso subnodoso adscendente, foliis lobatis
ternatis pinnatifidisve inaequaliter dentatis utrinque
pilosis subtus subtomentosis, stipulis ovatis, umbel-
lis subpaniculatis multifloris, petalis ligulatis, tubo
nectarifero calyce obtuso 2-3-plo longiore.
Pelargonium lobatum var. pictum. Hortulanorum.
Root large, tuberous, branching out into numerous
other tubers, of various forms and sizes. Stem short,
somewhat succulent, and more or less knotted at the
joints, branching but little, but generally terminated
in a large panicle of flowers: young branches very
hairy, the hairs very unequal in length, numerous
small short ones being intermixed with the fewer long
ones. Leaves very variable, oblongly ovate, some only
lobed, others ternate or pinnatifld, some of the upper
ones sometimes nearly bipinnatifid, a little undulate,
hairy on both sides, and thinly tomentose underneath :
lobes and leaflets divaricately spreading, more or less
again lobed, and toothed with short sharp unequal
teeth. Petioles stout, thickened at the base, tomentosely
hairy Stipules ovate, acute, or some of the upper ones
obtuse. Flower-stems branched. Peduncles thickly clothed
with unequal hairs. Umbels many-flowered. Involucre
of several narrow, acute, very hairy bractes. Pedicles
very short, or scarcely any. Calyx 5-cleft, densely
hairy: the segments blunt, concave inwards, the upper
one largest, erect; the others more or less reflexed. Nectariferous tube variable in length, two or three times
longer than the calyx, thickly clothed with short hairs.
VOL. v . H