158 GERANIACE^ 



8. Stinking Crane's-bill, or Herb Robert {G. rohertidnum). — Stems 

 spreading ; leaves ternate, or quinate ; leaflets deeply cut, the segments with 

 minute points ; sepals angular, hairy ; capsules wrinkled and hairy. Plant 

 annual. This pretty little Geranium, flowering in early spring and lingering 

 sometimes in autumn among the last of the flowers, is the most common of 

 all our native species. Everyone knows it, and most of us have bound it in 

 the nosegay gathered in childhood from woods and thickets, and green lanes 

 and meadow hedgerows. It comes with the brilliant blue germander speed- 

 well to tell of the approach of summer ; and before a flower has yet expanded 

 on the bank, we may see its beautifully-cut leaves gleaming in the sun. 

 When winter is approaching and flowers are gone, and many green leaves are 

 turned brown, this foliage is often among the few bright things which are 

 left, and, touched with a rich glow of crimson, it seems not to need the addi- 

 tion of blossoms to render it attractive. We have in September seen masses 

 of it covering large heaps of stones with its stems and leaves, and thought, 

 as the robin sat sweetly singing near it his pi-elude to the winter, that the 

 hues of bird and leaf accorded well with each other. Mr. Thompson says 

 that it grows with peculiar luxuriance on basalt, and that it is one of the 

 most abundant plants in Ayrshire. He remarks that near the river Doon 

 especially, its size was such as to incline him to examine it as a new species. 

 We forget its strong and disagreeable odour when we see its hundreds of 

 pink stars contrasting with the purple blossoms of the ground ivy, or 

 mingled in the later year, as the poet has described them, among many 

 lovely wild flowers : — 



' ' Loudly raves 

 The bustling brook, which many a chasm hath cleft, 

 Where springs the hispid comfrey ; and above, 

 In rich exuberance, light-vein'd ivy trains 

 A drapery o'er the loftier trees. Here glows 

 The crimson berry of the guelder-rose, 

 Whose vine-like leaves have caught a sanguine stain 

 From the October sun. Down in the grass, 

 And blushing through green blades, Herb Robert fain 

 Would catch the eyes of pilgrims as they pass, 

 Who seek for rarer plants." 



This plant is a native of many lands besides ours, and has smiled upon 

 those who have wandered in Brazil and Chili, reminding them of the green 

 lanes of England. In some places a decoction of the plant is used in 

 medicine. The herb contains tannin, and exerts an astringent action on the 

 system, and by the old herbalists it was regarded as a good vulnerary. They 

 probably gave it its familiar name after some Robert renowned in their days, 

 though unknown in ours. It appears to possess more astringency than either 

 of our British species, but some foreign species exceed it in this respect. 

 The Geranium maculatum, which is a common plant from Canada to North 

 Carolina, enlivening with its pale lilac flowers many a grassy and leafy spot, 

 contains so much astringency that it is known in America by the name of 

 Alum-root, and is employed by physicians as a remedy in complaints of the 

 throat and in general debility. Dr. Bigelow ascertained that this species 

 contained a great proportion of tannin and gallic acid, the amount of tannin 

 appearing to be greater than that of any other constituent, and Barton says 



