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dantly on some limestone and magnesian soils. In a very interesting paper, written by Mr. W. Thompson, on the relation between geological strata and the plants growing on their superincumbent soils, the author remarks: The basaltic ranges claim certain species, which, if not peculiar to them, are at least more luxuriant when they are grown upon whinstone soil. The native Gerania I have always found thriving best in such districts. Geranium sanguineum, the most elegant of the genus, is richer in its tints and stronger near Edinburgh and on the Carrick shore of Ayrshire than anywhere else throughout the whole range of my botanical excursions. On mountain lime it is slender and straggling; on the basaltic ledges of Salisbury Crags, and beneath the scaurs of the Ayrshire whin, it exhibits the same dense bed of flowers, with a thickness of stem, compactness of leaf, and a hairiness of clothing so different, as almost to mark it out as specifically distinct from the G. sanguineum of North Wales, and its lakes. The G. sanguineum of Carrick extends nearly a mile along the shore, in one continued tract of beauty, exhibiting a luxuriance superior to that of any other flower of distinguished loveliness which our island produces." This flower also grows abundantly with the Broom-rape, along the ledges of the cliff in another district of mountain limestone, St. Vincent's Rock, and Clifton Downs, near Bristol. A variety of this Crane's-bill has been found by botanists on the sauds of Walney Island, in Lancashire, with pale flesh-coloured flowers, varied with purple.

** Flower-stalks 2-flowered.

2. G. phieum (Dusky Crane's-bill).-Stem erect; flowers panicled; sepals slightly pointed capsules keeled, hairy below, wrinkled above. Plant perennial. This species is frequently cultivated in gardens, but is rare as a wild plant; and even when growing in our woods and thickets it is very often the outcast of some neighbouring garden, or its seed was borne thither by wind or bird from a more distant plot. The flowers are of a dingy purplish black colour, looking like the blossom of some poisonous plant. They occur in May and June. A variety with white flowers is said, by Sir William Hooker and Dr. Arnott, to be found on the sands of Barrie, near Dundee.

3. G. nodésum (Knotty Crane's-bill).-Stem smooth; leaves opposite, with 5 or 3-pointed serrated lobes; petals with a deep notch; sepals with long awns; capsules downy, but not wrinkled. Plant perennial. This plant is not truly wild, and no British habitat is now known for it; but it is said to have grown formerly on the mountainous parts of Cumberland, and between Hatfield and Welwyn, in Hertfordshire.

4. G. pratense (Blue Meadow Crane's-bill, or Crowfoot Meadow Crane's-bill). -Stem erect; leaves palmate, 5-lobed; lobes cut and serrated; stamens smooth, tapering from a broad base; capsules hairy all over; fruit-stalks bent down. Plant perennial. This is the largest of our British Crane's-bills, and is, from June to August, a very handsome flower, of a beautiful purple colour, attaining, when luxuriant, about the size of a florin piece. The stem is often more than two feet high, and the plant is well distinguished by its much divided leaves. It is most frequently found among bushes and thickets, particularly near waterfalls, and is common in moist copses in Cambridgeshire, and in the neighbourhood of London. Mr. Thompson remarks:-" Geranium pratense is, I am persuaded, to be found luxuriant only in basaltic districts. Every stream in Ayrshire, and to the east of Glasgow, is rendered eminently beautiful by the rich azure of its transparent petals, and the singular verdure of its long-stalked leaf. The Clyde, the Calder, the Tannock, and every streamlet near Bothwell and Campsie Fell, possesses this flower. The bed of these rivers is basaltic. In Ayrshire, the

*

Ayr, the Marnock, the Doon, the Irvine, and the Garnock, have tufts of this plant on their banks from the source to the sea. Long before botany became a study, these flowers gave an interest to that country, which is still remembered with something of the quiet delight which an early love of Nature produces and perpetuates; and even now, after the contemplation of mere beauty in flowers has given place to the pursuit of their scientific arrangement and philosophic purposes, there is a childish delight in the rencontre of such mementos of early days, when time, and thought, and pleasure were young and pure. I have met them thus in southern counties, and occasionally near the Irwell, but how altered! • Quantum mutati ab illis !'—the hue is less brilliant, the herbage weaker, the bed a few thin and scattered patches. What can be the cause? Is it that later impressions are warped by prejudice, from want of novelty, or of the requisite associations? or does the pre-eminence of Ayrshire Crane's-bill depend on the position of the streams, where it grows over basaltic rocks, whose débris is more suited to vegetation of this kind than the washing of the new red sandstone of Lancashire? The latter conclusion I am willing to adopt," adds our author, "because it is the most reasonable, and, if for no other reason, because it favours my theory."

5. G. sylvaticum (Wood Crane's-bill).—Stem erect, many-flowered; leaves palmate, 7-lobed; lobes cut and serrated; stamens awl-shaped, fringed; capsules keeled, hairy; fruit-stalks erect. Plant perennial. This rare plant grows in woods and pastures, chiefly in the northern parts of this island. It has, in June and July, very pretty purple or pale rose-coloured flowers, which are smaller than those of the Meadow Crane's-bill, but larger than the blossom of the Dusky species. It is distinguished from the Meadow Crane's-bill, not only by its smaller size, but also by its capsules, which are most hairy about the keel, and by its stamens, which are fringed about half-way up.

6. G. Pyrenaicum (Mountain Crane's-bill).-Stem erect, downy; rootleaves kidney-shaped, 5-7 lobed; lobes oblong, blunt, 3-cleft, and toothed; petals notched, and twice as long as the pointed sepals. Plant perennial. Although this species grows in many meadows and pastures, yet it is not a common flower. Its stem is two or three feet high, and its numerous small purple blossoms have their petals very distinctly 2-cleft. Sir William Hooker and Dr. Arnott remark that this species has a spindle-shaped root, while in all the former species the root consists of long fibres arising from a premorse tapMr. Backhouse mentions a Crane's-bill growing in Van Diemen's Land, the Geranium parviflorum, which has a long fleshy root, and is called Native Carrot, and much eaten by the people of that country.

root.

7. G. lúcidum (Shining Crane's-bill).—Leaves nearly round, 5-lobed; sepals angular and wrinkled; capsules with 3 keels, and wrinkled; stems spreading. Plant annual. The foliage and stems of this pretty species are very smooth and glossy, and the lower leaves, which are smaller than the upper ones, are often tinged with bright red. The stems are but a few inches in height, swelling at the joints, and the elegant little rose-coloured flowers expand in May, continuing in blossom till July. The plant is not uncommon in hilly and mountainous countries, on rocks, walls, and roofs of houses. Mr. Thompson remarks of this species, that it belongs especially to lime-districts, and seems not appropriate to basalt. Derbyshire, he says, abounds with this, plant. He also met with a luxuriant crop of it near Warwick, where it was growing on a base of lime which was at a considerable depth below the surface.

"This stream, the Ayr, occasionally crosses schist and plastic clay. In such places this Geranium is not to be found."

8. G. Robertiánum (Stinking Crane's-bill, or Herb Robert).—Stems spreading; leaves ternate, or quinate; leaflets deeply cut, the segments with minute points; sepals angular, hairy; capsules wrinkled and hairy. Plant annual. This pretty little Geranium, flowering in early spring and lingering sometimes in autumn among the last of the flowers, is the most common of all our native species. Every one knows it, and most of us have bound it in the nosegay gathered in childhood from woods and thickets, and green lanes and meadow hedgerows. It comes with the brilliant blue Germander Speedwell to tell of the approach of summer; and before a flower has yet expanded on the bank, we may see its beautifully cut leaves gleaming in the sun. When winter is approaching and flowers are gone, and many green leaves are turned brown, this foliage is often among the few bright things which are left, and, touched with a rich glow of crimson, it seems not to need the addition of blossoms to render it attractive. We have, in September, seen masses of it covering large heaps of stones with its stems and leaves, and thought, as the robin sate sweetly singing near it his prelude to the winter, that the hues of bird and leaf accorded well with each other. Mr. Thompson says that it grows with peculiar luxuriance on basalt, and that it is one of the most abundant plants in Ayrshire. He remarks that near the river Doon especially, its size was such as to incline him to examine it as a new species. We forget its strong and disagreeable odour when we see its hundreds of pink stars contrasting with the purple blossoms of the ground ivy, or mingled in the later year, as the poet has described them, among many lovely wild

flowers:

Loudly raves

The bustling brook, which many a chasm hath cleft,

Where springs the hispid Comfrey; and above,

In rich exuberance, light-vein'd Ivy trains

A drapery o'er the loftier trees. Here glows

The crimson berry of the Guelder-rose,

Whose vine-like leaves have caught a sanguine stain
From the October sun. Down in the grass,

And blushing through green blades, Herb Robert fain
Would catch the eyes of pilgrims as they pass,

Who seek for rarer plants. The Arum there,

Now leafless, lifts its ruby sceptre-red

As coral rocks that stud the Sea Nymph's bed;

Pale Agrimony scents the evening air

With a faint lemon odour; and, around,

The roseate Mallow in profusion springs."

This plant is a native of many lands besides ours, and has smiled upon those who have wandered in Brazil and Chili, reminding them of the green lanes of England. In some places a decoction of the plant is used in medicine. The herb contains tannin, and exerts an astringent action on the system, and by the old herbalists it was regarded as a good vulnerary. They probably gave it its familiar name after some Robert renowned in their days, though unknown in ours. In appears to possess more astringency than either of our British species, but some foreign species exceed it in this respect. The Geranium maculatum, which is a common plant from Canada to North Carolina, enlivening with its pale lilac flowers many a grassy and leafy spot, contains so much astringency that it is known in America by the name of alum-root, and is employed by physicians as a remedy in complaints of the throat and of general debility. Dr. Bigelow ascertained that this specics contained a great proportion of tannin and gallic acid, the amount of tannin appearing to be greater than that of any other constituent, and Barton says it might form a substitute for kino. Our common