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of Géranium is now held only by the more humble 
though equally beautiful flowers of that genus which 
bloom in the meadows and by the road-sides through 
our land. The word Pélargonium , however, bears 
with it so harsh a Sound that, craving pardon of 
the botanists, we will recall for the présent the 
long familiar name of Géranium. How marvellous 
is the influence which habit acquires over us, causing 
us to cherish even the sounds to which we hâve been 
long accustomed ! 
One feature of beauty in many of these flowers is 
the clearness of the veins in their petals. In the 
leaves of plants, veins are composed of tubular ves- 
sels, which convey the nourishment the leaf receives 
from the stem to ail parts of its surface, and trans¬ 
mit it back again. Ail flowers hâve veins, but in 
some we scarcely discern them, whilst in others, 
as in many species of the Géranium, they are so 
perceptible as to give a pencilled appearance to the 
petals. 
The peculiar structure of the seed-vessel has ob- 
tained for different plants of this tribe the names 
of Crane’s-bill and Stork’s-bill. Dodoens, an old her- 
balist, thus writes of our English “ Herbe Roberte, 
