122 
THE FLORISTS JOURNAL. 
corresponding in the nature, both of the soil and the vegetation. 
In such places, the rocks are worn to clay and sand by the alternate 
action of the heat and humidity ; and the vegetable refuse of the 
year is speedily reduced to powder. This, blended with the clay 
and sand, is spread over the low grounds by the violence of the 
rains, and forms there the native soil of Geraniums ; and hence 
any cultivator requires only to know this fact, in order to obtain 
them in the most healthy state, and in the finest bloom. Thus 
much of the physical geography of the native countries of his 
plants should be known by every cultivator who wishes to be 
successful, and especially who wishes to make improvements, as 
this enables him to form the proper compost, and in so far give 
the plants the proper treatment, upon established principles ; and 
so preserves him from that empiricism to which the ignorant have 
recourse, and which has but too often been the bane of the floral 
art, as well as of every other. In this particular instance, the 
knowledge of the native ground of Geraniums points out at once 
that they should be grown in a mixture of loam, decayed vegetable 
matter, and sand, the last in smallest quantity, because it is the 
portion of the soil which the winds and the floods are most apt to 
carry away. 
The degree of vegetable life, and the manner of its distri¬ 
bution over the plant are also matters of great importance ; and 
they are in part, at least, indicated by the climate. He who 
commanded the plants to spring up and adorn the earth, adapted 
each to its climate with infinite knowledge ; and therefore when¬ 
ever the seasonal action is more than usually violent and variable, 
the native plants are endowed with superior vital energy, in order 
to bear up against the action to which they are exposed. 
Geraniums, that is, the imported species, are remarkably instinct 
with life, and there is scarcely a joint in any one shoot not too old 
for carrying leaves, but may be made to strike fibres as a root. 
It must not, however, be supposed that plants of this description 
can be obtained in perfection with less care than any others. The 
fact is, that they can bear more, and deserve more ; and the cul¬ 
tivator should never lose sight of the important truth, that it is 
not upon the mere life of the plant, as simply keeping it in ex¬ 
istence, that he works, but upon the surplus ; and if there is no 
surplus over and above this, then the plant is incapable of im¬ 
provement, any farther than by placing it in the best soil and 
