THE GERANIUM TRIBE. 37 



grow by the way side, or in waste places, or in the 

 meadows, and some of which are often cultivated in 

 the borders of the flower-garden or shrubbery, for 

 the sake of their gay red or white or purple blossoms. 

 One of them, the Meadow Geranium, is so very 

 common that vou can scarcely fail to procure it ; if 

 you should fail, then almost any other kind will do as 

 well for the purpose of enabling you to follow me. 



This plant has roundish leaves, divided into several 

 deep lobes, with the veins branching in the manner of 

 Exogenous plants (p. 13.), a circumstance which also 

 occurred in the umbelliferous order, although I forgot 

 to mention it. The leaves are placed upon long' 

 hairy stalks which are singularly swollen at the base, 

 where there grows a pair of pale thin green scales 

 called STIPULES ; these parts you have not before 

 seen ; they are frequently not met with in any species 

 of a whole natural order, but when they do occur 

 they usually accompany the leaves of every plant 

 in the order ; their use is unknown. The flowers of 

 this species can hardly be said to be in an umbel, 

 for only two of them grow together, but if more were 

 to appear, as is the case in other species, they would 

 all diverge from one common centre; and this you 

 know would make an umbel. Their calyx consists 

 of five ribbed sepals which spread when the flower is 

 open, and when the petals have fallen off" contract 

 round the young and tender ovaries, to which they 

 form an efficient protection. The petals are five, of 

 a purplish blue colour ; they are very round at their 

 ends, and spread in such a manner as to form a 



