80 
NAT. ORDER. GERANIACE/E. 
The more common, free growing, shrubby kinds, will thrive 
well in a rich loamy soil, or a mixture of loam and decayed leaves. 
The dwarfer woody kinds, such as the G. tricolor, elcgans and ovale, 
thrive best in a mixture of loam, peat and sand : the pots should be 
well drained with pot-sherds. The fleshy stemed sorts succeed best 
in rather more than one-third of line sand, the same quantity of turfy 
loam, and the remainder of peat; the pots also require to be well 
drained with pot-sherds. Very little water is required when they 
are not in a vigorous state. Young cuttings of all the shrubby kinds 
strike root freely under hand-glasses, in the same kind of soil recom- 
mended for the plants, or in pots, without being covered by glasses, 
placed in a shady situation. Many of the kinds may be increased 
by slips from the roots. 
No genus is more liable to sport into hybrids than this, by 
promiscuous impregnation. All the fine hybrid varieties in the gar- 
den have been obtained by impregnating one sort with the pollen of 
another, by cutting out the anthers of the plant intended for the fe- 
male parent, before they burst, and impregnating the stigmas with 
the pollen of another. The object of this should be to obtain a su- 
perior variety : therefore particular attention should be paid to those 
plants intended for the parents, and more so to that intended for the 
female parent ; for it has been observed that seedlings approach 
nearer to the male than the female parent. To grow Geraniums in 
rooms, they require as much air and light as can possibly be given 
them, and watered regularly when dry ; and when the leaves get 
dusty, to clean them well with a sponge and water. 
Medical Properties and Uses. This is one of the most powerful 
and pure vegetable astringents in the Materia Medica. According 
to the accounts of some late professors, in regard to their experi- 
ments, it contains a considerable proportion of tannin, and a small 
quantity of gallic acid. The gallic acid is indicated by the dark pre- 
cipitate remaining in solution. It differs, however, from the acid of 
