MOXADELPHIA. 175 



bold property. The number of species described by Loudon 

 amounts to nearly two hundred, besides a catalogue of 179 

 varieties. Mr. Sweet, an English botanist and cultivator, has 

 published a work on this tribe, in which not only all the spe- 

 cies formed by the hand of nature, but the varieties, are de- 

 scribed and figured. Most of the species are tuberous root- 

 ed plants, or shrubs, which are perennial in the green-houses 

 of our climate. The majority of them are of very easy cul- 

 tivation, and bear the confined air of sitting rooms better than 

 most ornamental flowers. Some one of them is in flower 

 nearly every month in the year, and some individuals con- 

 tinue to blossom during all the summer months, and a few, as 

 the Rose scented, flower from April to August. The fleshy 

 and thick stemmed species, as the holyhock leaved, are by 

 far the most rare and valuable, but are much less easily cul- 

 tivated than the more common kinds. The height to which 

 the different species grow, varies from six inches to five feet ; 

 there are few, however, which rise higher than three feet. 

 These plants require a rich, light soil, as a mixture of loam 

 and peat, or decayed leaves from the woods. Only a few of 

 the Geranium species, properly so called, are cultivated, 

 nearly all those generally called Geraniums being of the Pe- 

 largonium genus. 



ORDER IV. OCTANDRIA. Stamens 8. 



This order contains only a few rare plants, and nothing 

 worthy of notice. 



ORDER V. DECANDRIA. Stamens 10. 



GENUS Geranium. Crane's bill. The anemone leaved 

 species, which came from the Cape, is a most splendid plant, 

 having large, fern-like, glossy leaves, of the most delicate 

 green, with a fine red blossom, larger than half a crown. 

 The Lancashire, and Bloody Species, are also beautiful 

 plants. In this country there is a cr'nmon native species, 

 called Spotted Crane's bill, (Geranii. n maculatum,) which 

 grows in woody places, and bears a pretty purple flower. 

 The root is knotty, and is employed in medicine as an 

 astringent. 



ORDER VI. POLYANDRIA. Stamens many. 

 This order contains several extensive genera, as Malva, 



What is said of the number of species and varieties of the stork's bill '! 

 Is it the pelargoniums, or the geraniums, that are chiefly cultivated ? 



