CXLVII.— THE MEADOW CRANE’S-BILL. 
Geranium pratense Linne. 
I F we attempt to arrange the Natural Orders in one continuous series, it is 
inevitable that great breaks will appear in their sequence. It is, to adopt the 
oft-used but instructive comparison of our system of classification to a tree, as if, 
having traced all the ramifications of one main branch, we had to begin at the base 
of another main branch to trace in turn its ramifications. There is thus, for 
example, but little near affinity between the Family Leguminosce, or indeed any of 
the Order Rosales, and the Order Geraniales, which Engler’s system places next to 
one another. On the other hand, there seems to be very considerable approximation 
between this fifteenth Order of the Archichlamydece and the Sapindales, Rhamnales, and 
Malvales, which come sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth in this system. Just 
as we find the insertion of the floral organs, whether hypogynous or perigynous, 
the main distinction between Ranales and Rosales, so here the equally unimportant- 
seeming characters of the bending of the anatropous ovule — so that the micropyle, 
or entrance for the pollen-tube, faces upwards or downwards, and the raphe, or 
adherent stalk, is either dorsal or ventral, i.e. on the upper or lower edge of the 
ovule — seem to be the most important distinctions between these Orders. 
The Order Geraniales, as understood by Engler, is a very large one, comprising 
twenty Families and over nine thousand species. It has cyclic, usually pentamerous 
flowers, with generally one, two, or three whorls of stamens, and from two to five 
carpels in a whorl, which, in many cases, separate in the fruit, thus forming a 
superior schizocarp. There are seldom more than one or two ovules in each carpel ; 
and if there is only one it has its raphe ventral, i.e. on the under side of the ovule, 
the side nearest to the axis, and its micropyle facing upwards. 
The closely-related Families Geraniacece, Oxalidacece , and Linacece agree further in 
having heterochlamydeous, polysymmetric flowers and two whorls (or rarely a single 
whorl) of stamens, the anthers of which burst longitudinally. The Family Geraniacece 
includes eleven genera and over 450 species, mostly herbs, native principally to the 
Warmer Temperate and Tropical regions of the globe. They are often more or 
less succulent or hairy, and in not a few cases have relatively large and conspicuously 
massed, or variegated, flowers, indicative of their xerophytic character. It is curious 
to find some of the South African species of Pelargonium rejoicing at one season in the 
spray of a waterfall, yet capable, under the climatic contrasts frequent in their native 
country, of resisting prolonged drought. This character may be connected with the 
prevalence of astringent and aromatic substances in members of the Family. The 
leaves are usually stipulate and the flowers perfect, with a persistent imbricate calyx, 
honey-glands on the floral receptacle, protandrous stamens with filaments united at 
the base, and carpels united into a long-beaked schizocarp. 
