GERANIUMS Pon. 
ence miles away from their original home. Closely allied 
to this are the various grape-vines, which probably came 
from the East originally and are now cultivated in 
endless variety, both for their fresh fruit and for many 
kinds of wine. (Various police prosecutions warn us not 
to imagine that they are responsible for all. The homely 
and useful gooseberry and the cider-apple have a very 
large, though unacknowledged, share in much of the 
“champagne” that is sold, whilst in the very cheap 
clarets and ports one would often find that the only 
constituent which can claim legitimate descent from fruit 
is the spirit with which they are doctored, and even 
then there are dark rumours of sawdust and still less 
appetising ingredients.) 
Another vine of great beauty, though not of any par- 
ticular use, is the well-known Virginian Creeper, and its 
habits of growth would at once suggest the relationship, 
even apart from the similarity of the flowers. As it is 
not a native we must leave it with respectful admiration 
and pass to a large and common group of English wild 
flowers, the Geraniums, of which there are about twenty 
varieties, including the Stork’s-bills. A common term 
for the family, by-the-by, is the Crane’s-bills, which is 
given to them on account of their long-beaked seed- 
vessels. All our English examples bear flowers of red 
or purple. That is to say, the base colour appears to be 
red, but in almost all there is some admixture of blue, 
which in the Dusky Crane’s-bill reaches such a pitch that 
the flower is darkened to a dinginess almost black. In 
the Meadow Crane’s-bill the result of the mixture is a 
purple, in which the blue has rather the better of it, with 
the effect of making a charming flower; and in Herb 
Robert, which is to be found in every ditch, the red _ 
