CULTURE OF PELARGONIUMS. 
123 
situation ; and this is no improvement at all in the florist’s sense of 
the word,—who does not mean a better plant, but a better variety 
of plant. To give a familiar instance, no man would ever think of 
improving a Fir tree in the same manner as Geraniums are im¬ 
proved ; and the Fir tree is one in which there is no life, that is, 
no power of continuing life, except in the terminal buds ; and 
therefore Fir trees cannot be multiplied by cuttings. A geranium 
can be multiplied by itself in this way to an almost unlimited 
extent; and thus, when a choice variety is once obtained, it may 
be extended and preserved. 
But no new variety can, of course, be obtained by cuttings ; 
yet here again the Geranium offers many advantages. Most of 
them perfect their seeds in this country ; and though the seeds of 
the same plant are not very prone to break into varieties, which is 
not desirable in any plant, nothing is more easy than to procure 
new varieties by cross impregnation. This is deviating from the 
regular course of nature, and therefore not so certain as the rearing 
of the same variety ; but upon the whole it answers well; and the 
general rule is to select the female plant for the size and form of 
the flower, and the male one for the colour which is wished to 
predominate. The result is never absolutely certain, but generally 
speaking, good approximations are obtained. This is a curious 
point, as well as one of great practical value to the florist; for 
the petals, or sepals as it may be, which are the most highly 
coloured parts, are in all cases far more intimately connected with 
the anthers, than with the seed vessel and its appendages ; and, 
generally speaking, they decay, or fall off as soon as the anthers 
have performed their office. Practical florists are much more 
deeply interested in this part of the physiology of flowers than 
they themselves are always aware of, and therefore we shall 
return to it as opportunity offers. 
The cultivated geraniums are still popularly called by the same 
names as the wild geraniums of our own fields; but the genus 
had been augmented to such an extent that a sub-division became 
necessary, and systematic writers changed the genus to a family, 
under the name of Geraniacete, or the crane’s-bill family. This 
family is divided into three genera, Geranium , or the crane’s-bill 
properly so called ; Pelargonium , or the stork’s bill; and Erodium , 
or the heron’s-bill. There are natural distinctions in these which, 
notwithstanding their intimate alliance, would have placed them 
