[Prater 82.) 
THE DARK PURPLE HELLEBORE. 
(HELLEBORUS ATRORUBENS.) 
—9————— 
A hardy Herbaceous Plant, from CROATIA, belonging to the Order of Cnowroors. 
Specific Character. 
THE DARK PURPLE HELLEBORE. Radical leaves , HELLEBORUS ATRORUBENS ; foliis radicalibus gla- 
quite smooth, pedate, pale beneath and shining : those of berrimis pedatisectis, subtus pallidioribus nitidis, caulinis 
the stem nearly sessile and palmate. Stem rather angular, subsessilibus palmatipartitis, caule subangulato bifide 
branched by bifurcation. Sepals roundish, coloured. ramoso, sepalis subrotundis coloratis—D. C. 
Helleborus atrorubens: Waldstein & Kitaibel, Plante rariores Hungaria, vol. iii., p. 301, t. 271; De Cand. Prodrom. i. 47. 
ALrHoveH very far from a novelty, this curious plant is hardly known in the gardens of this 
country. That which is now figured was kept in a greenhouse in the Garden of the 
Horticultural Society, where it had been received from Mr. Van Houtte. It is, however, perfectly 
hardy, flowering in March and April in a border among shrubs. The skirts of a clump of 
Rhododendrons suit it perfectly. 
It was first made known to botanists by Waldstein and Kitaibel, who give a very bad figure of 
it in their great work on the plants of Hungary, in which they state that it is found wild in woods 
and thickets in Croatia, in great abundance near Korenicza. 
Although a native of sucha country, in which the winter's cold and the summer’s heat are far 
beyond anything experienced in these islands, the plant is much more beautiful in a greenhouse 
than in the open air. It is only in the former, indeed, that its peculiar and rather striking tints 
VOL. IH. H 
