CHAPTER III. 
GERANIUMS. 
Bright flower! whose home is everywhere, 
Bold in maternal Nature’s care, 
And all the long year through the heir 
Of joy or sorrow; 
Methinks that there abides in thee 
Some concord with humanity, 
Given to no other flower I see 
The forest through ! 
EYOND all comparison the Geranium 
as it is commonly called is the best 
known and most popular of any plant 
in cultivation to-day among all na- 
tions of the globe. Properly speak- 
ing, at least technically so, the Ger- 
anium is an extensive species of 
herbaceous plants, all of which are hardy in the South, 
and known as ‘‘ Crane’s Bill,’ from the beak like thorns 
or projection beyond the seed. <A few of the species pro- 
duce handsome flowers, while most of them are mere 
weeds. What the general public Know as Geraniums 
are correctly known as Pelargoniums of the Horse Shoe 
or Zonale type, and also called Fish Geraniums, therefore 
it is to this class our remarks must be confined, which is 
also an extensive genus of evergreen perennial flowering 
