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 GERANIUM 731 suspended in 1822 and resumed in 1828. In 1837 he was raised to the peerage. His prin- cipal philosophical works are : Des signes et de Vart de penser consideres dans leurs rapports mutuels (4 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1800) ; De la genera- tion des connaissances Tiumaines (Berlin, 1802) ; and Histoire comparee des systemes de philoso- pTiie (3 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1803), of which a post- humous volume appeared in the third edition (1847-'8). In 1825 he received the prize of the academy for his treatise Du perfectionne- ment moral et de V education de soi-meme (trans- lated into English, Boston, 1830), the funda- mental idea of which is that life is a discipline whose object is perfection. The five leading motives which solicit the will are sensations, affections, thought, duty, and religion; and the two conditions of harmonious develop- ment are a love of the good (V amour du lien) and a habit of self-control. His Visiteur du pauvre also received the prize of the acad- emy (1821). In 1827 he published De Vedu- cation des sourds-muets de naissance; and in 1829 appeared his Institutes du droit adminis- tratif francais, which was finished by Bou- latignier and Alfred Blanche (2d ed., 5 vols., 1842-'5). Shortly before his death he made a tour through Germany and Switzerland, in order to study the system of hospitals and other charitable institutions. GERANIUM (Gr. -ytpavos, a crane), the botani- cal name of one genus and the popular name of another genus of plants belonging to the family geraniacece. Plants of the genus gera- nium are herbs with perennial, biennial, or an- nual roots ; stems swollen at the joints ; leaves usually rounded and palmately lobed or dis- sected; flower stalks terminal or lateral, one- to three-flowered ; flowers symmetrical, parts in fives, petals equal; stamens ten, in two se- ries, the five outer ones opposite the petals and sterile; alternating with the petals are five small glands upon the receptacle; the pistil consists of five two-ovuled carpels united to a prolongation of the axis. As the pistil ma- tures this axis and the attached styles elongate and form a pointed fruit about an inch and a half long ; the beak-like character of the fruit suggested the popular name of cranesbill, and probably the botanical name for the genus also. When quite ripe the carpels break away from the central axis, the small one-seeded pods re- maining attached to the styles, the separation taking place from below upward. Six species of geranium or cranesbill are found east of the Mississippi, and a few others are peculiar to the western side of our territory. The only peren- nial among the eastern species, and at the same time the largest and best known, is @. macu- latum, the spotted cranesbill ; its stem is about two feet high, each of its numerous branches bearing two light purple flowers about an inch across ; the leaves are about five-parted, with the divisions cut at the ends ; when old they sometimes have whitish blotches, on account of which not very conspicuous character the specific name was given. The root stock of this plant is very astringent, and is not only a popular domestic remedy in diseases of the bowels and other cases where astringents are required, but is officinal in the United States pharmacopeia. On account of its astringen- Spotted Cranesbill (Geranium maculatum). cy it is in some places called alum-root, a name which properly belongs to Heuchera, and should be restricted to it. Of the annual kinds we have G. Robertianum, or herb Robert, a beautiful plant common in our woods, espe- cially among rocks and in the rich black mould of their crevices, where it is partially shaded. Its flowers, though small, are numerous and Herb Eobert (Geranium Eobertianum). prettily striped and rosy, and its foliage is so delicately cut and borne upon long slender petioles, that it is well adapted for the gar- den, especially in the rockwork. A heavy dis- agreeable odor is however emitted from its leaves, if handled. Frequently in the autumn