ERO'DIUM REICHAR'DI. 
reichard’s heron’s-bill. 
Class. 
MONODELPHIA. 
Order. 
HEPTANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
GERANIACEiE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration 
Introduced 
Minorca. 
1^ inches. 
April, Sept- 
E^erennial. 
in 1629. 
No. 952. 
The present generic name is founded on the 
Greek erodios, a heron. Allusion is hereby made 
to the carpels or fruit of the plant, from a fancied 
likeness of them to the head and bill of the heron. 
It may be convenient to many of our readers, that 
we remind them of the division which was made of 
the genus Geranium as it originally existed, which 
was noticed in an early number of this work. 
The species of Geranium, according to the 
arrangement of Linneus, had increased to an incon- 
venient number, when L’Heritier, a French botan- 
ist, divided them into three genera, giving them 
the names of Geranium, Pelargonium, and Ero- 
dium. This idea was a happy one, inasmuch as 
Geranium being derived from greanos, a crane, 
he adopted Pelargonium, from pelargos, a stork, 
and Erodium, from erodios, a heron. Hence, a 
well-defined group of plants, are appropriately 
designated by three naturally allied birds, whose 
heads and long bills resemble the long-awned car- 
pels, or fruit of the vegetable. 
The marks which distinguish these three genera 
are simple. The Geraniums have ten perfect or 
