416 Relations between Geological Strata and . 
Near the river Doon in Ayrshire, especially, its size was such 
as to incline me to examine it as a new species. Throughout 
Ayrshire this is one of the most fertile plants. 
Geranium praténse (crowfoot crane’s-bill) is, I am_per- 
suaded, to be found luxuriant only in basaltic districts. Every 
stream in Ayrshire, and to the east of Glasgow, is rendered 
eminently beautiful by the rich azure of its transparent petals, 
and the singular verdure of its long peltate leaf. ‘The Clyde, 
the Calder, the Tannock, and every streamlet near Bothwell 
and Campsie Fells, possesses this flower. ‘The bed of these 
rivers is basaltic. 
In Ayrshire, the Ayr *, the Marnock, the Doon, the Irvine, 
and the Garnock have tufts of this plant on their banks, from 
the source to the sea. Long before botany became a study, 
these flowers gave an interest to that country which is still 
remembered with something of the quiet delight which an 
early love of nature produces and perpetuates ; and even now, 
after the contemplation of mere beauty in flowers has given 
place to the pursuit of their scientific arrangement and philo- 
sophical properties, there is a childish delight in the rencontre 
of such mementos of early days, when time and thought and 
pleasure were young and pure. I have met them, thus, in 
southern counties, and occasionally near the Irwell; but how 
altered! “ Quantum mutati ab illis!” + The hue is less 
brilliant, the herbage weaker, the bed a few thin and scat- 
tered patches. What can be the cause? Is it that later 
impressions are warped by prejudice, from want of novelty 
or of the requisite associations? Or does the preeminence 
of Ayrshire crane’s-bill depend on the position of the streams, 
where it grows over basaltic rocks whose débris is more suited 
to vegetation of this kind than the washings of the new red 
sandstone of Lancashire? The latter conclusion I am willing 
to adopt, because it is the most reasonable ; and, if for no other 
reason, because it favours my theory. 
Geranium lucidum belongs to lime, and seems not appro- 
priate to basalt. Derbyshire abounds with this plant. I met 
a most luxuriant crop of it near Warwick. It was there grow- 
ing on a base of lime; which was at considerable depth below 
the surface. 
Erddium marinum I have seen only on Orme’s Head, and at 
Mount Edgecumbe, near Plymouth, where I found it on the 
Devonshire marble, a rock very closely allied to the (Orme’s 
Head) mountain limestone. 
* This stream occasionally crosses schist and plastic clay. In such 
places this geranium is not found. 
+ “ How different from those!” 
