| B. Capsule opening loculicidally. Leaves 3-foliolate. | |
| Flowers regular. | 3. Oxalis. |
1. GERANIUM, Linn.
Annual or perennial herbs, rarely woody at the base. Leaves opposite or alternate, usually palmately lobed or cut, stipulate. Peduncles axillary, bracteate, 1–2-flowered. Flowers regular. Sepals 5. Petals 5, hypogynous, imbricate, alternating with 5 glands. Stamens 10, usually all perfect, rarely 5 without anthers, free or connate at the base. Ovary 5-lobed and 5-celled, with a long beak terminated by 5 stigmas; ovules 2 in each cell, superposed. Capsule splitting from below upwards into 5 carpels with long styles, which roll up elastically; seeds 1 in each carpel.
A well-known genus, comprising over 100 species, widely distributed over the whole world, but most abundant in the Northern Hemisphere. Two of the New Zealand species are endemic; 1 extends to Australia and temperate South America; the remaining 2 are found in most temperate regions.
| Stems suberect. Leaves much divided. Peduncles 2-flowered. Sepals awned. Seeds coarsely reticulated | 1. G. dissectum. |
| Stems prostrate. Peduncles 1-flowered. Sepals hardly awned. Seeds smooth or very finely reticulated | 2. G. microphyllum. |
| Stemless or nearly so. Rootstock stout. Peduncles 1-flowered. Seeds quite smooth | 3. G. sessiliflorum. |
| Stems prostrate, and with the leaves silky-hoary. Peduncles 1-flowered. Flowers large | 4. G. Traversii. |
| Softly pilose. Stems diffuse or prostrate. Peduncles 2-flowered. Sepals mucronate. Carpels wrinkled. Seeds smooth | 5. G. molle. |
1. G. dissectum, Linn. Cent. i. 21, var. australe, Benth. Fl. Austral. i. 296.—A branching decumbent or suberect annual or perennial herb, sometimes with a stout swollen rootstock. Stem 1–2 ft. long, often covered with soft spreading or retrorse hairs, rarely almost glabrous. Leaves on long slender petioles; blade 1–2 in. diam. or more, cut to the base or nearly so into 5–7 segments which are again deeply and irregularly divided into few or many usually narrow lobes; lobes obtuse or acute. Peduncles slender, 2-flowered. Flowers very variable in size. Sepals ovate or ovate-lanceolate, usually with an awn of varying length, pilose. Petals as long or longer than the sepals, slightly notched at the apex. Carpels hairy, even. Seeds deeply and coarsely reticulated.— G. dissectum var. carolinianum. Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 39; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 36; Kirk, Students' Fl. 79.
Var. b, patulum, Hook. f. l.c.—Suberect or spreading, clothed with spreading and retrorse hairs. Petals usually small.—G. patulum, Forst. Prodr. n. 530. G. retrorsum, L'Herit, ex D.C. Prodr. i. 644; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 594.
Var. c, glabratum, Hook. f. l.c.—Stout, procumbent, almost glabrous. Leaves 3–5-lobed; lobes much broader and less cut.
