RELATIVES OF THE HERB ROBERT 147 
as the Herb Robert, but its whole life, from the birth 
of the seedling until death, is sometimes considerably 
less than twelve months, for under favourable con- 
ditions the early spring seedlings grow up rapidly 
enough for the fruit to ripen before the winter, 
Whenever it is sufficiently warm it appears to 
live, so to speak, in a hurry, and not, as we shall see, 
a very methodical one either. 
Contrasted with the Meadow Cranesbill, whose 
flowers, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, alter 
not either in the form of the 6, 
corolla or in the orderly sequence WE 
of its pollination arrangements, : 
the Storksbill betrays a remark- 
ably instability in both respects. 
All our wild Geraniums are steady 
and uniform in the possession of 
five petals, all of the same size and 
shape, according to the species, 
but the same cannot be said of fre. 53.—Seedling of 
the Storksbill, and the want of ee Serres Re- 
stability in its pollination arrange- Rar O: 
otyledons. 
ments is more pronounced than 
in any single Cranesbill, so far as the relative maturity 
of the anthers and stigmas is concerned. 
Again, in the Cranesbills there is very little varia- 
tion in the colour of the flowers of any given species : 
we can detect slight differences in those of the shingle 
variety of the Herb Robert, and there is a very pretty 
dwarf variety of the Bloody Cranesbill,* with light 
pink instead of crimson petals, but the Meadow 
Cranesbill is true to its beautiful bluish-purple. White 
blossoms occur in the Herb Robert and other species, 
* Geranium sanguineum, Linn.; var. lancastriense, Mill. 

