=Round-leaved Crane’s-bill= (_Geranium rotundifolium_).
This neat member of a charming family is by no means a common plant; in fact, northward of South Wales and Norfolk it is unknown. Southward it may be found in hedges and waste places, flowering in June and July. The stems are slight, and greatly swollen at the joints. The leaf-stalks are long, and the leaves, though their general outline is kidney-shaped, are deeply cut into about seven lobes, which are in turn lobed or toothed. Owing to the close general resemblance of this species to its immediate congeners some rather minute differences should be noted. The sepals end each in a hard point--in botanists’ language they are _mucronate_--the margin of the narrow petals is _entire_, that is, not notched, and the narrow lower portion (_claw_) is not fringed with hairs. The carpels, or divisions of the seed-vessel, are keeled but not wrinkled, and the seeds are _pitted_. Its nearest allies are:--
I. The Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill (_G. molle_), with similar leaves to the last, but with _notched_ petals, the claw bearded. Flowers more rosy than _rotundifolium_.
II. Small-flowered Crane’s-bill (_G. pusillum_). Leaves more deeply lobed, sepals as long as the notched petals, claw slightly hairy. Flowers, pale rose.
III. Long-stalked Crane’s-bill (_G. columbinum_). Lobes of leaves distant from each other, the segments into which they are again cut being very narrow; sepals large, acuminate and awned, as long as the entire rose-purple petals; claws less hairy than in last. All the leaf and flower-stalks long.
IV. Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill (_G. dissectum_). Similar to _G. columbinum_, but all stalks much shorter. Bright red petals, notched.
V. Herb-Robert (_G. robertianum_). Plant more or less red. Leaves divided into five leaflets, these again divided. Calyx angular, the sepals long-awned and hairy. Petals narrow and entire; purple streaked with red; claw smooth.
VI. Shining Crane’s-bill (_G. lucidum_). Plant more or less crimson in summer. Leaves divided into five segments, each bluntly lobed at the top. The calyx is a wrinkled pyramid, each sepal awned. The rosy petals are much longer than the sepals; claw smooth. There are two lines of hairs on the upper branches.