HELLEBORUS 25 



This plant varies greatly in the manner in which the margin of 

 the leaf is cut from roundly and obscurely crenate to acutely angled. 

 Continental botanists have made several varieties and species out of 

 the Caltha palustris of Linnaeus. 



Var. GuERANGERii (Boreau in Billot, Adnot. (1855), ii as a species). 

 In this variety the sepals are oblong-oval, so that when the flowers 

 are fully expanded the sepals are not contiguous. The carpels are 

 spreading, with the beak longer than in palustris. It has been noticed 

 near Deancourt in the Isis district, near Little Hendred in the Ock 

 district, by Basildon in the Pang, and at Wargrave in the Loddon 

 district. It may be well to observe that the flowers- of ordinary 

 C. palustris, which are produced later in the season, have usually 

 narrower sepals than those produced earlier in the season, so that the 

 late-flowering plant is sometimes mistaken for the variety Guerangerii, 

 which is the Caltha cornuta, of Schott, Analed. Bot. 31, according to Beck's 

 Fl. Nieder Osterreich. In this form the mature follicles are gradually 

 narrowed towards the apex into the beak, which is curved and in the 

 upper part somewhat hooked. In true C. pahistris the mature follicles 

 are very shortly and very often abruptly attenuate-contracted into the 

 beak, and the follicles curved on the back. Another variety or sub- 

 species is the Caltha laeta, Schott, I.e., in which the follicles are nearly 

 or quite straight on the back, but this has not yet been observed in 

 Berkshire. 



Caltha is one of the chief adornments of our meadows in early 

 spring, and is found in all the bordering counties. 



HELLEBORUS, Linn. Gen. PI. 622 (Tournefort, Inst. t. i44\ 



H. foetidus, Linn. Sp. PI. 558 (1753). Stinking Hellebore, Tetter Wort, 

 Bear's-foot. 



Top. Bot. 16. Syme, E. B. i. 58, t. 45. Baxt. t. 103. Nyman, 17. 



Fl. Oxf. 12. 

 Denizen or possibly native. Sylvestral. Local and rare. P. Feb.- April. 

 First record. Helleborastrum. Grows in a pasture close upon Botley 



Hill, MS. in Lyte's Herball, 1660 (possibly this may have meant 



the next species), published as H. foetidus (unlocalized) by Mr. 



T. B. Flower, in Robertson's Env. of Reading, 1843. 



1. Isis. Buckland, Boswell. 



2. Ock. Botley Hills, MS. in Lyte (not there now). 



3. Pang. Near Basildon, Waterhouse. In this locality, which is 



a rather open planting on the chalk downs, it has the appear- 

 ance of a native plant. 



5. Loddon. Windsor, Dyer, Phyt. N. S. v. 528. Rose Hill, Park 

 Place, Stanton. 



Helleborus foetidus is recorded for all the bordering counties. 



