154 GERANIUM MACULATUM. SPOTTED CRANES-BILL. 



or no relation to those which bore the ancient names. It is 

 pleasant to feel in the case of the Geranium that we can be 

 really carried back by it into association with people who lived so 

 many thousands of years ago.. 



Our "spotted-leaved Crane's-bill" is closely allied to some 

 of the European forms, and like them may lay claim to much of 

 the beauty of detail that has made some of them so famous. A 

 French author remarks that " the pencilled-leaf Geranium, to the 

 negligent and careless observer, appears a simple, common 

 flower ; but examine it closely, mark the pink veins that mean- 

 der in every direction over its petals, sometimes so delicate as to 

 be scarcely visible ; study it well, and the more you do so the 

 more beautiful will it appear, and learn thence to admire the 

 skill and ingenuity displayed in the Creator's works." In our 

 species there are not only the delicate pink veins of the petals to 

 be admired, but also the veining of the leaves, — the veins being 

 prominent as well as beautifully arranged. This arrangement 

 of the veins, or, as the botanist would call it, the venation, is of 

 as much interest to the scientific student as to the lover of art. 

 Very often we can tell by the veins the order to which a plant 

 belongs, but in the present case we cannot distinguish these 

 leaves from those of some of the Rammculus or Crow-foot family. 

 The root leaves of our Spotted Crane's bill and of Anemone Penn- 

 sylvanica, for instance, might be mixed together, and it would 

 trouble the young student to separate them. And after all there 

 may be a closer relation between the plants composing the 

 Geranacecs and those of RammculaccB than botanists generally 

 would be disposed to grant. If it were not for the lengthening of 

 the styles or slender portion of the pistils, and their union into a 

 sort of beak which gives it the "crane's-bill" character, there 

 would be very little reason for not classing the Geraniums with 

 the Crow-foots. Even as it is, we have nearly the same length 

 of pistils in Clematis, and when the Geranium seed is mature 

 there is the feathery tail which Clematis has. There are many 

 other matters connected with the relationship of Geraniums to 



