Volume 1 — PLATE XXXVII. GERANIUM FRAGILE. Brittle-stalked Geranium.

CLASS XVI. ORDER II.

MONODELPHIA DECANDRIA. Threads united. Ten Chives.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Monogyna. Stigmata 5. Fructus rostratus, 5-coccus.

One Pointal. Summits five. Fruit furnished with long awns, five dry berries.

See Geranium Grandiflorum, Plate XII.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Geranium foliis carnosis, pinnatis; caulis fruticosus, ramosus, fragilis; petalis linearibus, pedunculis erectis.

Geranium with fleshy winged leaves; stem shrubby, branched and brittle; petals linear, fruit-stalks upright.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The Empalement cut open, to shew its tubular shape to its base. 2. The Chives, and Pointal, (natural size). 3. The Pointal, (magnified).

The Geranium fragile has in general seven fertile tips, and thus comes under Linnæus’s first arrangement; and Mons. L’Heritier’s Genus Pelargonium. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and was introduced by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy in the year 1792. This plant seldom grows more than a foot high, but during the months of July, August, and September, it is covered with blossoms, which are of a pale yellow, striped at the bottom with red, standing nearly upright. It is rather a tender plant, requiring a dry stove, or hothouse, to preserve it in winter, being very subject to damp in the leaves; is easily propagated by cuttings, and thrives best in rich mould.

PLATE 37