192 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
wins easily, although, as you would discover if you tried 
to paint an imitation, there is still some blue in the 
mixture. We have thus a variety of clues which help 
us to assign a plant to the order. Purple flowers, the red 
having generally the better of it, long pointed seed-vessels, 
calyx and corolla each in five separate pieces, combine 
to make us suspicious. When, in addition, we find the 
plant downy or hairy, our suspicions become almost 
certainty, for all but one of our present order share this 
peculiarity. The leaves give a less certain clue, for some 
have almost entire leaves wrinkled at the edges like the 
ordinary geranium of the garden, whilst most have them 
deeply divided, like the musk geranium of the greenhouse. 
The Stork’s-bills have long been famous for their seeds, 
which are used as instruments for testing the dampness 
of the air. When they are ripe they first become freed 
from the seed-vessel at the base, 
and they gradually peel away a 
strip of the long, thin structure, 
working up to the top. This 
strip steadily curls itself up, cork- 
screw fashion, for over half its 
length, leaving the last part 
straight, pointing away, usually 
at right angles to the general 
direction of the screw. When 
the whole falls away the seed, as 
the heaviest end, naturally gets 
to the ground first, and, being 
itself provided with barbs point- 
ing upwards, is difficult to move. 
S | Suddenly some moisture falls on 
STORK’s-BILL skEDS. © the corkscrew, which at once tries 
