HERB ROBERT RED ROBIN RED SHANKS DRAGON'S BLOOD
(Geranium Robertianum) Geranium family
Flowers - Purplish rose, about 1/2 in. across, borne chiefly in
pairs on slender peduncles. Five sepals and petals; stamens 10;
pistil with 5 styles. Stem: Weak, slender, much branched, forked,
and spreading, slightly hairy, 6 to i8 in.
high. Leaves: Strongly
scented, opposite, thin, of 3 divisions, much subdivided and
cleft. Fruit: Capsular, elastic, the beak 1 in. long,
awn-pointed.
Preferreed Habitat - Rocky, moist woods and shady roadsides
Flowering Season - May-October
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania, and westward to
Missouri.
Who was the Robert for whom this his "holy herb" was named? Many
suppose that he was St. Robert, a Benedictine monk, to whom the
twenty-ninth of April - the day the plant comes into flower in
Europe - is dedicated. Others assert that Robert Duke of
Normandy, for whom the "Ortus Sanitatis," a standard medical
guide for some hundred of years, was written, is the man honored;
and since there is now no way of deciding the mooted question, we
may take our choice.
Only when the stems are young are they green; later the plant
well earns the name of red shanks, and when its leaves show
crimson stains, of dragon's blood.
At any time the herb gives forth a disagreeable odor, but
especially when its leaves and stem have been crushed until they
emit a resinous secretion once an alleged cure for the plague.
Flies, that never object to a noxious smell, constantly visit the
flower, and have their tongues guided through passages between
little ridge-like processes on each petal to the nectar secreted
by the base of the filaments at the base of each sepal. To
prevent self-fertilization the five stigmas are folded close
together when the flower opens, nor do they spread apart and
become receptive until after the outer row of anthers, then the
inner row, have shed their pollen. When the elastic carpels have
ripened their seed, bang! go the little guns, scattering them far
and wide.
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Next: WHITE OR TRUE WOOD
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