154 GERANIUM MACULATUM.—SPOTTED CRANE’S-BILL. 
or no relation to those which bore the ancient names. It is 
pleasant to feel in the case of the Geranium that we can be 
really carried back by it into association with people who lived so 
many thousands of years ago. 
Our “spotted leaved Crane’s-bill” is closely allied to some 
of the European forms, and like them may lay claim to much of 
the beauty of detail that has made some of them so famous. A 
French author remarks that “the pencilled-leaf Geranium, to the 
negligent and careless observer, appears a simple, common 
flower ; but examine it closely, mark the pink veins that mean- 
der in every direction over its petals, sometimes so delicate as to 
be scarcely visible ; study it well, and the more you do so the 
more beautiful will it appear, and learn thence to admire the 
skill and ingenuity displayed in the Creator's works.” In our 
species there are not only the delicate pink veins of the petals to 
be admired, but also the veining of the leaves,—the veins being 
prominent as well as beautifully arranged. This arrangement 
of the veins, or, as the botanist would call it, the venation, is of 
as much interest to the scientific student as to the lover of art. 
Very often we can tell by the veins the order to which a plant 
belongs, but in the present case we cannot distinguish these 
leaves from those of some of the Razunculus or Crow-foot family. 
The root leaves of our Spotted Crane’s bill and of Anemone Penn- 
sylvanica, for instance, might be mixed together, and it would 
trouble the young student to separate them. And after all there 
may be a closer relation between the plants composing the 
Geranacee and those of Ranunculace than botanists generally 
would be disposed to grant. If it were not for the lengthening of 
the styles or slender portion of the pistils, and their union into a 
” 
sort of beak which gives it the “crane’s-bill” character, there 
would be very little reason for not classing the Geraniums with 
the Crow-foots. Even as it is, we have nearly the same length 
of pistils in CZemat’s, and when the Geranium seed is mature 
there is the feathery tail which Clematis has. There are many 
other matters connected with the relationship of Geraniums to 
