60 NAT. ORDER. — GERANIACE^. 



The more common, free growing, shrubby kinds, will thrive 

 well in a rich loamy soil, or a mixture of loam and decayed leaves. 

 The dwarfer woody kinds, such as the G. tricolor, elegans and ovale, 

 thrive best in a mixture of loam, peat and sand : the pots should be 

 well drained with pot-sherds. The fleshy stemed sorts succeed best 

 in rather more than one-third of fine sand, the same quantity of turfy 

 loam, and the remainder of peat ; the pots also require to be well 

 drained with pot-sherds. Very little water is required when they 

 are not in a vigorous state. Young cuttings of all the shrubby kinds 

 strike root freely under hand-glasses, in the same kind of soil recom- 

 mended for the plants, or in pots, without being covered by glasses, 

 placed in a shady situation. Many of the kinds may be increased 

 by slips from the roots. 



No genus is more liable to sport into hybrids than this, by 

 promiscuous impregnation. All the fine hybrid varieties in the gar- 

 den have been obtained by impregnating one sort with the poll«n of 

 another, by cutting out the anthers of the plant intended for the fe- 

 male parent, before they burst, and impregnating the stigmas with 

 the pollen of another. The object of this should be to obtain a su- 

 perior variety : therefore particular attention should be paid to those 

 plants intended for the parents, and more so to that intended for the 

 female parent ; for it has been observed tJiat seedlings approach 

 nearer to the male than the female parent. To grow Geraniums in 

 rooms, tiiey require as much air and light as can possibly be given 

 them, aud watered regularly when dry ; and when the leaves get 

 dusty, to clean them well with a sponge and water. 



Medical Properties and Uses. This is one of the most powerful 

 and pure vegetable astringents in the Materia Medica. According 

 to the accounts of some late professors, in regard to their experi- 

 ments, it contains a considerable proportion of tannin, and a small 

 quantity of gallic acid. The gallic acid is indicated by the dark pre- 

 cipitate remaining in solution. It differs, however, from the acid of 



