THE BUTTERCUP FAMILY. 89 



16. PiLE-wOKT — {Ficdria verna.) 

 One of the earliest heralds of spring, abounding everywhere on 

 hedgebanks and in woods, and thriving especially in rookeries. 



Cui'tis, i. 11-] (as Ranunculus Ficdria) ; E. B. ix. 584. 

 A flower easily recognised by its narrow and .■liining petals, wliich seem as if 

 polished by art. They close before rain and at night, and curl backwards and 

 turn white when overblown. A double-flowered variety is found in gardens. 



17. Maesh Makigoed — {Cdliha palustris.) 

 Illuminates the borders of every pond and marsh, in April and May, 



"with broad masses of golden bloom, every blossom the size of a half- 

 crown. 



Curtis, i. 40 ; E. B. viii. 506 ; Baxter, ii. 153. 



Common in gardens, with the flowers doubled, but much inferior in beauty to 

 their wild state, the petals being narrow and small. 



18. Globe-flower — {Trollius Europceus.) 



Moist woods and pastures in the hilly districts, but rather rare. 

 Thornham and Pilsworth, both near Middleton. Also near Bolton, 

 Mossley and Stalybridge. (J. P.) Fl. May, June. 

 E. B. i. 28 ; Baxter iv. 241. 



Very common in gardens. 



19. Columbine — (^Aquilegia vulgaris.) 



Rare. Pastures and hedgebanks about Baguley and Cotterill, 

 sparingly. On the Buxton road, near Whaley Bridge. Hedges 

 between Marple Wood and the River Goyt, plentiful. Right bank of 

 the Mersey, below Northen. Fl. June, July. 



E. B. V. 297 ; Baxter, iii. 221. 



Very common in gardens, in many diflerent colours, and usually double. 



Besides the species named above, there are commonly cultivated in gardens 

 about fifty others of this family, which contributes perhaps more than any other 

 to their ornament. The Christmas-rose, or Helleborus niger, opens its large 

 white cups with the new year, a beautiful example of the promotion of calyx, and 

 the subordination of the corolla ; the green-frilled Erdnthis, or winter-aconite, a 

 flower not unlike the pUewort, and the hepaticas, white, blue, and pink, the latter 

 resembling tiny roses, amve in March ; then come the gorgeous, velvety, many- 

 hued anemones, remarkable for the deep purple, amounting almost to blackness, of 

 their innumerable stamens and pistils, and the pasque-flower, clothed in every 

 part, including the dull violet and seldom-opened blossoms, with white and 

 silky hairs. A few gardens can shew the charming blue Anemone Apennina. 

 (Curtis, ii. 399.) May brings the scarlet Ranunculus, the Trollius Asidticus, and 



