ONOBRYCHIS arvensis f. Campanula arvensis erecta. _Bauh. Pin. 215._ [Illustration: No 102] Grows wild among the corn in the South of Europe, is an annual, and, like the _Sweet Alyssum_, generally cultivated in our gardens, and most deservedly so indeed, for when a large assemblage of its blossoms are expanded by the rays of the sun, their brilliancy is such as almost to dazzle the eyes of the beholder. Those annuals which bear our winter's frosts without injury, are advantageously sown in the autumn; for by that means they flower more early, and their seeds ripen with more certainty; the present plant is one of those: it usually sows itself, and is therefore raised without any trouble. It begins to flower in May and June, and continues to enliven the garden till August or September. [103] PELARGONIUM ACETOSUM. SORREL CRANE'S-BILL. _Class and Order._ MONADELPHIA HEPTANDRIA. _Generic Character._ _Calyx_ 5-partitus: lacinia suprema definente in tubulum capillarem, nectariferum, secus pedunculum decurrentem. _Cor._ 5-petala, irregularis. _Filam._ 10. in aequalia: quorum 3 (raro 5) castrata. _Fructus_, 5-coccus, rostratus: rostra spiralia, introrsum barbata. _L'Herit. Geran._ _Specific Character and Synonyms._ PELARGONIUM _acetosum_ umbellis paucifloris, foliis obovatis crenatis glabris carnosis, petalis linearibus. _L'Herit. Monogr de Geran. n. 97._ GERANIUM _acetosum_ calycibus monophyllis, foliis glabris obovatis carnosis crenatis, caule fruticoso laxo. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 613. Sp. Pl. p. 947._ GERANIUM Africanum frutescens, folio crasso et glauco acetosae sapore. _Comm. prael. 51. t. 1._ [Illustration: No 103] Mons. L'HERITIER, the celebrated French Botanist, who in the number, elegance, and accuracy of his engravings, appears ambitious of excelling all his contemporaries, in a work now executing on the family of _Geranium_, has thought it necessary to divide that numerous genus into three, viz. _Erodium_, _Pelargonium_, and _Geranium_. The _Erodium_ includes those which LINNAEUS (who noticing the great difference in their appearance, had made three divisions of them) describes with five fertile stamina, and calls Myrrhina; the _Pelargonium_ those with seven fertile stamina, his _Africana_; the _Geranium_, those with ten fertile stamina, his _Batrachia_. They are continued under the class _Monadelphia_, in which they now form three different orders, according to the number of their stamina, viz. _Pentandria_, _Heptandria_, and _Decandria_. If the principles of the Linnaean system had been strictly adhered to, they should perhaps have been separated into different classes; for though the _Pelargonium_ is Monadelphous, the _Geranium_ is not so; in consequence of this alteration, the _Geranium peltatum_ and _radula_, figured in a former part of this work, must now be called _Pelargonium peltatum_, and _radula_, and the _Geranium Reichardi_ be an _Erodium_.