22 THE GENUS ANEMONE. [part i. 



number of stamens, bearing dark purple anthers 

 in the centre of the flower. When the flower 

 becomes double, the sepals, which retain their 

 form and number, only becoming somewhat 

 more spread out and flattened, are called by- 

 florists the guard-leaves ; and the stamens in 

 the centre are metamorphosed into petals, 

 which generally retain their dark purple colour, 

 or at any rate are much darker than the sepals. 

 The other florists"* Anemones spring from A. 

 stellata^ or hortensis^ and they are distinguished 

 by having pointed sepals, and a white spot at 

 the base of each, so as to form a white circle 

 inside the cup of the flower. -The involucre is 

 a long way from the calyx, and when the flowers 

 become double, the sepals can scarcely be dis- 

 tinguished from the metamorphosed stamens. 



The hepatica or liverwort, the varieties of 

 which look so pretty in our gardens in spring, 

 was formerly considered to be a species of Ane- 

 mone, and indeed the genus Hepatica appears 

 to rest on very slight grounds. It has, however, 

 been adopted by most modern botanists, and 

 the Anemone Hepatica of Linnseus is now gene- 

 rally called Hepatica triloba. The normal form 

 of the species is the single blue ; and the double 

 blue, the single and double pink, and the single 

 and double white, are all only varieties of this. 

 The hepatica agrees^ in all points with the 



