THE STOKK'S-BILL. 



Erodium cicutarium. Nat. Ord., 

 Geraniacece. 



AYING to heart the fact that com- 

 parisons are proverbially odious, 

 and ordinarily very inadvisable, 

 we think, nevertheless, we may be 

 justified in saying- that amongst 

 the many beautiful little blossoms 

 scattered around us few are more 

 graceful and attractive than the 

 storkVbill. Whether we look at 

 the beautiful richness of form of the 

 foliage, a feature that is especially 

 rich when the leaves are seen in a mass, 

 or turn to the delicate colour and form 

 of the blossom, or the quaint rigidity 

 of the beak-like fruit using the term 

 simply as a convenient word to express 

 that which follows the flower all alike 

 are equally attractive. The truth is, possibly, that a large 

 number of our little plants are so pleasing in themselves, 

 that almost any one that comes uppermost possesses many 

 features that are interesting and beautiful to a lover of 

 these lowly forms, and it is quite possible that had the 

 subject before us been a primrose or herb-robert, a piece 

 23 



