CHAPTER XV 



WILD GERANIUM AND POOR ROBIN'S PLANTAIN 



When Wild Geranium blooms it does seem as 

 though it wanted to be everywhere. It isn't con- 

 tent with staying in our woods. I can see it all 

 over Uncle Hiram's little hill; it fairly covers 

 Miss Amelia's field, even Tommy's bunk for 

 Wood Betony; it is out blossoming along the road- 

 sides; in the field where there are cows, and it 

 grows rather close to the stream. The color of 

 its flower is lavender, and it is frail and pretty. 



It is not exactly the shape of a Buttercup, nor 

 a Wild Rose, and yet it is a little like each. Wild 

 Geranium is smaller than the Rose, and larger than 

 a Buttercup. The flower grows alone, or a few 

 of them are together at the ends of rather thin 

 stems. The leaves remind me of the Geraniums 

 that live in glass houses, or out in the garden in 

 summer, only they have no spicy fragrance. 



Sometimes, as they begin to fade, white spots 

 come on a few of them. Besides, when the 

 flowers have fallen, and the seed-pods are made, 

 there is a long piece sticking out which some one 

 must have thought looked like a crane's bill. It 

 is because of these white-spotted leaves, and this 

 long part of the seed-pod that the plant Is also 

 called Spotted Cranesbill. 



92 



