420 General Notices. 



shades of pink and rose color, hence their preeminent beauty ; and it is 

 among these beautiful varieties that I have chiefly obsei-ved a peculiar cir- 

 cumstance, ■which I thought sufficiently remarkable to be described to tlie 

 members of this society, and their friends, especially as it will give me an 

 opportunity of explaining to some amongst you, who may not have forgotten 

 the old name Geranium, why that name is no longer used for florists' flowers. 

 Indeed, it will be necessary to refer to the distinguishing marks of the 

 geranium and pelargonium to render the value of my observations obvious. 

 The old genus Geranium is now considered a natural order, and the pecu- 

 liar form of the fruit is its most remarkable character, being elongated like 

 a crane's beak. This natural order is divided into five genera; one of 

 these genera, called Rhyncotlieca, has no petals, and is therefore easily 

 known ; it contains only two species. Another is called Monsonia ; this has 

 fifteen stamens, mostly divided into five clusters, and petals with jagged 

 edges ; otherwise much resembling tlie true geranium. The other three 

 genera are distinguished partly by their mode of growth ; two of tliem, 

 Erodium and Geranium, consisting of soft herbaceous plants, examples of 

 them are found chiefly among the wild European and English weeds : and 

 the third is a group of stronger shrubby plants, having woody perennial 

 stems ; these are natives of Africa only, and mostly of the soutliern parts, 

 near tire Cape of Good Hope, and are now called Pelargoniums. The 

 great resemblance of the three genera to each other is pointed out by their 

 Latin names, thus : — Eronium, from iQoSioc, a heron; Geranium, in Greek 

 reqaviov, from yfC«i"?, a crane; and Pelargonium, from xfE/ao/o?, a stork; 

 because, as I before observed, the fruit resembles the beaks and heads of 

 tliose birds. Tlie distinction between geranium and pelargonium is a strictly 

 natural one, and wliat every gardener will admit. He has been, therefore, 

 ready enough to adopt a new name ; and without burthening his memory to 

 distinguish between a crane's bill, a stork's bill, or a heron's bill, he satisfies 

 himself with the Latin name pelargonium, which he applies at once to his 

 favorite plants. But as Uie mode of growth is very variable, botanists have 

 endeavored to point out some fixed character by which the genus may be 

 determined, — a character to be taken from the flower or fruit. And in the 

 case of pelargonium they seemed to be eminently successful, for in pelar- 

 gonium, with its shrubby mode of growth and truss of flowers, was found a 

 peculiar form of flower, Avith two large upper petals and three smaller 

 petals below, the stamens all turned downwards, and only seven of them 

 perfect ; and besides this, a tubular nectary, commencing at the base of the 

 upper stamens, and continued down and attached to the flower-stalk, and 

 endin'j- in a rounded swelling, which is easily seen in the flowers before 

 you. I should observe also that the two upper petals are generally marked 

 with a deep-colored spot. On the other hand, both the erodium and gera- 

 nium have equal petals, five or ten perfect stamens, and no nectary or 

 honey-tube penetrating the flower-stock. Thus pelargonium appears to be 

 a good or well-defined artificial, as well as natural, genus or group. But 

 tlie gardener, when he finds, as in this case, nothing but external beauty to 

 recommend a plant, endeavors by selecting what he considers the most 



