ORDER GERANIACEJE, OR GERANIUM TRIBE. 



409 



action takes place suddenly: and it may be noticed in any 

 common Geranium 

 whose fruit is ma- 

 ture, if gathered 

 before the dew is 

 off and then put in 

 the sun ; the effect 

 of its heat will be 

 to detach first one 

 and then another 

 carpel with a snap- 

 ping sound, the 

 jerk serving to 

 scatter the seeds. 

 This peculiar mode 

 of separation is 

 common to the 

 whole order, and is 

 very characteristic 

 of the plants in- 

 cluded in it. 

 574. 



FIG. 151 STRUCTURE OF FLOWER OF MEADOW GERANIUM. 

 _, A, stamens and pistil ; B^the lower part of the pistil, showing 



the clustered carpels; C, section of the pistil, showing a, 

 raniaCPEB are exten- the ovule > and b > the prolonged axis, round which the carpels 



are clufitered, and which forms the hard beak in the ripe 



sively diffused OVer fruit. D, a couple of ripe fruit, enveloped in the calyx 



+1-.P rrlnV>P rmp below ' the st y les projecting above ; a, is a carpel which has 



^iuue, c been detached by the hardening and contraction of its style. 



genera being re- 

 stricted to one quarter, and others to a different part. The 

 chief residence of the Pelargoniums is at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, from which all the showy Geraniums (so called) which 

 ornament our windows and gardens, have been derived. 

 These have been greatly improved by cultivation, and many 

 new varieties have sprung up ; and their number has been still 

 further extended by hybridism, which can be very effectually 

 performed in this group, the offspring almost always pre- 

 senting a complete intermixture of the characters of its parents. 

 Thus, if we take the pollen of a plant with red flowers, and 

 place it upon the stigma of one which has white flowers, the 



