PURPLE GERANIUM OR CRANE'S-BILL 



Geranium indsum Nutt. 

 GERANIUM FAMILY 



Several Geraniums with comparatively large flowers three- 

 quarters of an inch or so in diameter occur in Western Canada. 

 The Spotted Geranium, the common form in Eastern Canada 

 has apparently not found its way westward beyond Manitoba. 

 However, it is replaced by at least two handsome species 

 Richardson's Geranium, with its thin leaves and delicate white 

 flowers, found chiefly in woods and thickets; and this Purple 

 Geranium, a more hairy and rugged plant, with bright purple 

 'flowers, found in open meadows as well as in shaded places. 

 Both grow to a height of two feet or more, and bloom from late 

 June until August. In both, the leaves contribute not a little 

 to the attractiveness of the plant. 



After the petals have fallen, the seed vessels develop in such 

 a way as to give these plants the name of Crane's-bill. The 

 five carpels or seed-pods, growing in a ring, suggest, remotely, 

 the head of a bird, and the stout column, which rises from their 

 centre, suggests the beak of a crane. This column consists of 

 a central five-angled axis with which are combined five stout 

 bristles, each one of which is produced up from, and forms a 

 part of, one of the five seed-pods. As the seeds ripen, the column 

 dries unevenly and in such a way that there is a great tension 

 in each bristle. This tension is ever increasing until the seed- 

 pod suddenly breaks away at its base. The bristle, coiling upward 

 with great force, acts as a spring to fling the seed a considerable 

 distance from the parent plant. After the explosion the empty 

 cases hang from the top of the column's axis in a pretty chandelier- 

 like group. 



On a dry, warm day it is interesting to watch the operation 

 of this novel process of seed distribution. If the observer be 

 pressed for time or lacking in patience he may hasten its action, 

 for a touch will often spring the mechanism of this vegetable 

 catapult 



G4 



