HORSE CHESTNUTS CBANESBILLS, 69 



to the young Hop vines. The wood of the Maple is very beau- 

 tiful when polished. Pliny relates that the luxurious Romans 

 would give immense sums for tables made of this wood, and 

 that when these gay lords reproached their ladies with the 

 extravagance of their dress and jewellery, the fair ones retorted 

 by inquiring the price of the Maple tables. There is a some- 

 what sugary quality in our Maple (Acer campestre), but it 

 exists in a very slight degree. But in America there is a 

 species called the Sugar Maple, which notable housekeepers 

 tap annually, and from the sap manufacture sugar enough for 

 their domestic needs. The seed-lobes of another species are 

 cooked by the Tartars as an article of food, but it is no 

 great compliment to any seed to be eaten in a district where 

 vegetation is so scanty. 



The HOESE CHESTNUT family is nearly allied to that of the 

 Maples, and should surely now be admitted among British 

 trees. It is a native of Asia, and is spoken of by Gerarde as 

 a rare foreign tree. Mr. Johns states that in some places it is 

 called " the Giant's Nosegay ;" and when I have looked upon 

 a Horse Chestnut covered with its magnificent clusters of pink 

 and white flowers, I have been struck with the suitability of 

 this popular name. The fruit is too bitter to be pleasant for 

 food, but the Swiss make good use of it for fattening cattle. 



The GEBANIUM or CEANESBILL order is the next in our 

 British arrangement. These plants have five sepals, five petals, 

 ovary in five divisions, five styles, and ten stamens in the 

 brotherhood. Our wild Geraniums are all mere herbaceous 

 plants ; but the Pelargoniums, as the greenhouse Geraniums 

 are now called, attain to the dignity of shrubs. The long beak 

 to the seed procures for them the English name of Cranesbills. 



The Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum), is a rare and 

 handsome species, with a deep crimson flower, and half-prostrate 

 stem. I have never found it but in Switzerland, where I 

 gathered it from rocks overhanging the Lake of Thun ; but it 

 grows freely near Whitty. Fanny had the pleasure of finding 



