GEEAXIUM FAMILY. 



71 



The flax crop is one which involves a good deal of troublesome, disa- 

 greeable labor, and, without being profitable, is generally believed to be 

 injurious to the soil : an opinion as old as the time of Virgil — who says 



•• Urit enim Lini campum seges, urit avenae." — Georg. 1. 71. 



or, as rendered by Sotheby, 



Oats and the Flaxen Tian-est burn the ground." 



The seeds of this plant — besides yielding a most valuable drying oil, used 

 in painting — afford one of the best mucilaginous drinks, for coughs, and 

 dysenteric affections. 



Order XIY. GERANIA'CE^. (Geranium Family.) 



Mostly herbs with symmetrical, hypogynous, pentamerous flowers. Sepals imbricated. 

 Petals convolute. Stamens 10, slightly monadelphous at base, the alternate ones shorter. 

 Pistils 5, adhering to a central prolonged axis, from which they separate at maturity by 

 curling up and carrying with them the small 1-seeded pods. Seeds without albumen. 

 Herbs, or sometimes shrubby plants with opposite or alternate, stipulate, scented leaves 

 and astringent roots. 



The ornamental half-shrubby plants so common in collections of green-house plants 

 and usually called Geraniums, belong to the genus Pelargonium. 



1. GERA'NIUM, L. Cranes-bill. 



[Greek, Gei-anos, a crane ; the beaked fruit resembling a crane's bill.] 



Stamens all perfect, the 5 longer ones with glands at base. Styles co- 

 hering at the summit, recurved from below, but not twisted, in the ripe 

 fruit ; smooth inside. 



1. G. macula'tum, L. Stem erect, dichotomous above ; leaves 3-5- 

 parted ; petals entire, twice as long as the calyx. 

 Spotted Geranium. Cranes-bill. 



Perennial. Stem 12-18 inches high, hairy. Leaves 2-3 inches long, the divisions lobed 

 and cut at the end, blotched with whitish as they grow old, the radical on petioles 3-6 or 

 8 inches in length, those of the stem on much shorter petioles and the upper ones subses- 

 sile. Flowers purple, large, somewhat corymbose. Petals bearded on the claw. 



Woods and along fences, common. April- July. 



Obs. This plant is not troublesome as a weed, but is introduced here 

 on account of its valuable medicinal properties ; it being one of the 

 best astringents used in medicine — equalling in importance any of the 

 imported articles of that class — the agriculturist ought to be able to 

 identify it. The thick, fleshy root, or rather rhizoma, which should be 

 collected in autumn, is powerfully astringent, without bitterness or un- 

 pleasant taste, and is useful in diarrhoea and other diseases where a 

 medicine of this kind is required. Boiled in water and mixed with sugar 

 and milk, it is easily administered to children. G. Carolinian'um, L., 

 a native species, and G. pusiUum, aii introduced one, are annual species, 

 and common in waste places. Erodium cicutdrium, L., (which has the 

 5 shorter stamens sterile, and the styles, in fruit, twisting spirally,) is 

 naturalized sparingly in the Atlantic States, but in California and 

 Oregon it has taken complete possession of large tracts; it is there 

 known as " pin weed." 



