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          6. 
PREFERENCE. 
Pelargonium Helena. 
       Natural Order. 
    GERANIACER. 
    The Helen Geranium. 
          Class and Order. 
MONADELPHIA HEPTANDRIA. 
THIS is a beautiful family of plants, comprehending numerous species, herbaceous
and shrubby, but 
of a succulent or spongy nature. They have lately been divided by botanists
into several genera, of 
which the chief are Erodium, so called form the Greek, erodias, ' a heron,'
because the fruit resembles 
the head and breast of the bird; Pelargonian from pelargo, ' a stork,' for
a similar reason; and 
Geranium from geranos, ' a crane,' the capsule and its beak resembling the
head of the crane. The 
emblem arises from the popular taste for Geraniums or the Pelargonian tribe.
                                                      genteel Geranium, 
                                      With a leaf for all that come."
     Sir Walter Scott in the Lady of the Lake has very sweetly defined Preference.
Some feelings are to mortals given, 
With less of earth in them than heaven; 
And if there be a human tear 
From passion's dross refined and clear, 
A tear so limpid and so meek, 
It would not stain an angel's cheek, 
'Tis that which pious fathers shed 
Upon a duteous daughter's head! 
And as the Douglas to his breast 
His darling Ellen closely pressed, 
.-ob hnlv dirnna hAr trei tM.An'd 
I Can'st thou, young friend, no meaning spy 
In my poor follower's glistening eye? 
I'll tell thee -he recalls the day, 
When in my praise he led the lay 
O'er the arched gate of Bothwell proud, 
While many a minstrel answered loud, 
When Percy's Norman pennon, won 
In bloody field, before me shone, 
And twice ten knights, the least a name 
As mighty as yon chief may claim, 
Gracing my pomp, behind me came,