48 THE DARK PURPLE HELLEBORE. 
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Rind aps تآ سس‎ 
become developed. The leaves are liable to considerable difference of form, being five-parted, or even 
nine-parted, but they never assume the lobed condition of the other purple species H. purpurascens, 
nor are the lobes united half-way up; on the contrary, with the exception of the side divisions, they 
are distinct almost to the very base. The stem is about eighteen inches high, and produces its 
branches by two or three series of forkings. The flower-buds are a deep black-purple; the 
expanded flowers are of a peculiar violet-purple, except at the edges and centre, both which are 
green; but in a few days the violet flies off, and leaves nothing behind except a dingy green 
tinted with dull purple. No such brilliancy as is found in our figure is produced in the open air 
as far as we have remarked. The plant is, however, perfectly hardy. 
The Honourable W. F. Strangways, who has paid much attention to the species of this genus, 
has favoured us with the join useful memorandum respecting them :— 
Since I find that fi 
and shrubberies, the aa synopsis may pn be acceptable :— 
hardy herbaeeous plants, fit for undergrowth in woods 
A. Suffrutescent, with biennial stems. 
H. argutifolius 
| lividus } three-leaved. 
H. feetidus palmate-leaved. 
| B. Herbaceous, with annual stems. 
H. niger, two or three varieties ) 
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f with coloured flowers. 
atrorubens J 
H. cupreus 
purpurascens | with dusky flowers. 
i edius 
a 
with green flowers. 
rus 
angustifolius | 
graveolens 
H. Bocconi, and perhaps another species—doubtful—in Italy. H. foetidus is a native of Wales; H. viridis, of 
Dorsetshire ; H. argutifolius and lividus, of Corsica ; H, niger of the Alps ; H. abchasicus, orientalis, and olympieus, 
of the Levant, The rest, of Hungary. All, except lividus, of the easiest culture in shady situations, 
