G. SIBÍRICUM, L. Slender, repeatedly forked, short-villous; leaves 3-cleft with serrate divisions; flowers dull-white, mostly solitary; sepals awned; seeds minutely reticulate.--Rare. (Nat. from Eu.) 2. ERÒDIUM, L'Her. STORKSBILL. The 5 shorter stamens sterile or wanting. Styles in fruit twisting spirally, bearded inside. Otherwise as Geranium. (Name from ἑρωδιός, _a heron_.) E. CICUTÀRIUM, L'Her. Annual, hairy; stems low, spreading; stipules acute; leaves pinnate, the leaflets sessile, 1--2-pinnatifid; peduncles several-flowered.--N. Y., Penn., etc.; scarce. (Adv. from Eu.) 3. FLŒ́RKEA, Willd. FALSE MERMAID. Sepals 3. Petals 3, shorter than the calyx, oblong. Stamens 6. Ovaries 3, opposite the sepals, united only at the base; the style rising in the centre; stigmas 3. Fruit of 3 (or 1--2) roughish fleshy achenes. Seed anatropous, erect, filled by the large embryo with its hemispherical fleshy cotyledons.--A small and inconspicuous annual, with minute solitary flowers on axillary peduncles. (Named after _Floerke_, a German botanist.) 1. F. proserpinacoìdes, Willd. Leaflets 3--5, lanceolate, sometimes 2--3-cleft.--Marshes and river-banks, W. New Eng. to Penn., Ky., Wisc., and westward. April--June. Taste slightly pungent. 4. ÓXALIS, L. WOOD-SORREL. Sepals 5, persistent. Petals 5, sometimes united at base, withering after expansion. Stamens 10, usually monadelphous at base, alternately shorter. Styles 5, distinct. Pod oblong, membranaceous, 5-celled, more or less 5-lobed, each cell opening on the back; valves persistent, being fixed to the axis by the partitions. Seeds 2 or more in each cell, pendulous from the axis, anatropous, their outer coat loose and separating. Embryo large and straight in fleshy albumen; cotyledons flat.--Herbs, with sour watery juice, alternate or radical leaves, mostly of 3 obcordate leaflets, which close and droop at nightfall. Several species produce small peculiar flowers, precociously fertilized in the bud and particularly fruitful; and the ordinary flowers are often dimorphous or even trimorphous in the relative length of the stamens and styles. (Name from ὀξύς, _sour_.) [*] _Stemless perennials; leaves and scapes arising from a rootstock or bulb; leaflets broadly obcordate; flowers nearly 1´ broad; cells of the pod few-seeded._ 1. O. Acetosélla, L. (COMMON WOOD-SORREL.) _Rootstock creeping_ and scaly-toothed; _scape 1-flowered_ (2--5´ high); petals white with reddish veins, often notched.--Deep cold woods, Mass. to Penn., L. Superior, and northward; also southward in the Alleghanies. June. (Eu.) 2. O. violàcea, L. (VIOLET W.) Nearly smooth; _bulb scaly; scapes umbellately several-flowered_ (5--9´ high), longer than the leaves; petals violet.--Rocky places and open woods; most common southward. May, June. [*][*] _Stems leafy, branching; peduncles axillary; flowers yellow; cells several-seeded._