A Study of the Geranium.
In any window box of growing plants, you will be almost sure to see the geranium. It lifts its bright blossoms among the green leaves, and grows thrifty and strong, if its simple needs are supplied.
The sketch shows you a stalk of geranium. The leaves were very similar in shape as they grew, but in the sketch their position has given them four different shapes. When you study your own stalk, see if the leaves show you the same interesting variety. Do you notice that the flower-head does not show each blossom, separate and distinct? The shape of the whole cluster is expressed, with a few petals showing more plainly near the outside of the cluster.
A good way to get the bright scarlet of the flower cluster is to paint it in with a yellow wash; then drop in red. You will need red to soften the green of the leaves, and probably you will see a rosy color in some parts of the stalk and stems.
Paint a stalk of geranium against a background, at some distance from you.
Root Growths of Spring.
On your walks through the woods in the early spring days, you surely have discovered these plant growths from roots which have lived all winter. They are the bloodroot, the hepatica, and the fern.
The hepatica comes first, with its pale violet blossoms nearly hidden under a thick covering of the dead leaves of the forest. Its little buds seem to be protected from the cold by soft garments of fur. All winter long the spotted leaves of last autumn have stayed on the plant. They are beautiful now, in shape and in color.