240 HALF-HOURS IN THE GREEN LANES. 



admired the flower when we saw it growing in such 

 abundance on the sides of the Scotch mountains. 

 Fairy stories often connect this pretty, delicate little 

 plant with the antics of the " folk," who are said to 

 have rung such soft music out of it in the moon- 

 light. That, however, must have been long ago ! It 

 would be charming indeed to believe in such associa- 

 tions now. 



What of the geraniums? From early to late 

 summer they adorn our most dusty road sides, as 

 well as the banks of our sequestered green lanes, 

 and we cannot afford to glance at commonest British 

 wild flowers without noticing them. The Herb 

 Robert (Geranium robertianum) was one of the first 

 to appear, and its beautiful ruddy stalks, delicately- 

 cut leaves, and light mauve-coloured flowers made it 

 a prominent object. Next came the Shining Crane's- 

 bill (G. lucidum), aptly so called, for no one can 

 mistake its glossy green leaves for those of any 

 other species. And now the fields as well as the 

 hedge-banks and the margins of the waysides are 

 covered with the soft, elegant leaves, and small pink- 

 ish flower of the Dove's Foot Crane's-bill (G. molle). 

 These plants well deserve their name, for the seed- 

 vessel bears no slight resemblance to the bill of the 

 bird which has lent them its cognomen. Similarly 

 with an allied plant, also common by our road sides, 

 the Stork's-bill (Erodium cicutarium), whose flowers 

 are of the same colour as those of the geraniums 

 already mentioned, but whose leaves are even moio 



