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Geranium Reichardi. Dwarf Geranium.
❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
Class and Order.
Monadelphia Decandria.
Generic Character.
Specific Character and Synonyms.
This species of Geranium, so strikingly different from all others at present cultivated in our gardens, has been known for several years to the Nursery-men in the neighbourhood of London, by the name of acaule, a name we should gladly have retained, had not Professor Murray described it in the 14th edition of Linnæus's Systema Vegetabilium, under the name of Reichardi, a name he was disposed to give it in compliment to a French gentleman, who first discovered it in the island of Minorca, and introduced it into the gardens of France.
Linnæus describes many of the Geraniums, as having only five antheræ, though several of those he thus describes have to our certain knowledge ten, the five lowermost of which shedding their pollen first, often drop off, and leave the filaments apparently barren: but in this species (with us at least) there never are more than five, but betwixt each stamen, there is a broad pointed barren filament or squamula, scarcely to be distinguished by the naked eye.
The usual and best practice is to make a green-house plant of this species, though it has been known to remain in the open ground, during a mild winter, unhurt.
It continues to have a succession of blossoms during the greatest part of the summer, and may be propagated either by seed or parting its roots.
