Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/129

Geranium.] : Extends as far south as the Bluff, but most plentiful in the north. Var. australe occurs in Australia, Tasmania, and South America; the typical form is abundant in the Northern Hemisphere.

2. G. microphyllum, Hook. f Fl. Antarct. i. 8, t. 5.—A slender much-branched prostrate and straggling perennial 6–18 in. long, more or less pubescent with appressed silky white hairs, which are sometimes retrorse on the peduncles and pedicels. Leaves on long slender petioles; blade ½–1 in. diam., orbicular in outline, cut to the middle or below into 3–7 broad or narrow obcuneate lobes, which are more or less deeply toothed at the tips; stipules small. Peduncles 1-flowered, rarely 2-flowered; flowers usually white. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, barely awned. Petals longer than the sepals, entire or slightly retuse. Carpels smooth and even, pilose. Seeds longitudinally striated, reticulations long and narrow, not conspicuous.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 36; Kirk, Students' Fl.'' 80. G. potentilloides, ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 40 (non L'Herit'').

3. G. sessiliflorum, Cav. Diss. 198, t. 77, f. 2.—A depressed almost stemless perennial, more or less covered with spreading or retrorse silky hairs. Rootstock stout and woody, often branched above. Leaves mostly radical, numerous, crowded, on long slender petioles; blade ¼–¾ in. diam., orbicular, deeply divided into 3–5 toothed or lobed segments; stipules broad, membranous. Flowering-stems very short or quite undeveloped. Peduncles usually 1-flowered, short, seldom equalling the leaves. Flowers small. Sepals oblong, shortly awned, silky. Petals white, exceeding the sepals. Carpels even, minutely hairy. Seeds smooth, not reticulated.—''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. FI. 36; Benth. Fl. Austral. i. 297; T. Kirk, Students' Fl.'' 80. G. brevicaule, ''Hook. in Journ. Bot. i. (1834) 252; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 40.

4. G. Traversii, ''Hook. f Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 726.—A perennial herb, more or less hoary in all its parts with short and dense silvery white hairs; stems decumbent or prostrate, 1–2 ft. long. Radical leaves on long slender petioles 4–9 in. long; blade 1–3 in. diam., orbicular in outline, 5–7-lobed to the middle; lobes cuneate, toothed or lobed at the tips, silky-hoary on both surfaces. Cauline leaves much smaller and on much shorter petioles. Stipules broadly