a | 
Cr 
RANUNCULACE. 
GENUS IX—ERANTHIS. | Salisd. 
Sepals 5 to 8, equal, petaloid, deciduous. Petals 5 to 8, much 
shorter than the sepals, tubular, bilabiate, the exterior lip the 
longest. Carpels 5 to 8 or more, in 1 whorl, stipitate, having the 
ovules arranged inl row. Follicles dehiscent, free, each having a 
separate stalk. Seeds roundish, with a hard slightly-chagrined 
testa. Flowers involucrate. 
> SPECIES L-ERANTHIS HYEMALIS. Salisb. 
Prats XLIII.* 
Reich. Ic. F). Germ. et Helv. Vol. IV. Ran. Tab. CI. Fig. 4714. 
Helleborus hyemalis, Linn. Sp. Pl. 783. 
Petals with a filiform claw about equal to the tube. Involucre 
of 2 leaves cut into narrowly oblong segments. Carpels on stalks 
not half their own length. Styles about half the length of the 
carpels, and not exceeding that of the stamens. Seeds 8 or more. 
Naturalized in parks and thickets, but having no claim to be 
considered truly indigenous. I have seen specimens from Wim- 
bledon Park, Surrey ; Oakley Park, Cirencester, Gloucestershire ; 
Lanyar Plantations, Notts; Camp Hill, Yorkshire; and Stapen- 
hill, Derbyshire. It has also been reported from Hertfordshire 
and Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh. 
[England, Scotland.| Perennial. Early Spring. 
Rhizome short, resembling a tuber, brownish black. Leaves all 
radical, on long stalks, roundish in outline, tripartite, with the lateral 
segments very deeply 2-cleft, and all cut into contiguous, oblong, 
blunt lobes, which sometimes have a few blunt teeth near the apex. 
Scapes naked, 3 to 9 inches high, terminated by a single erect 
flower, surrounded by an involucre of 2 sessile bracts resembling the 
leaves, but with the slightly reflexed segments fewer, broader, and 
less approximate. Flowers cup-shaped, 1 inch or more across. Sepals 
ovate-oblong, slightly concave, pale but clear yellow. Petals rather 
‘shorter than the stamens, with a long slender claw nearly equal in 
length to the upper portion, which is a 2-lipped tube ; the outer lip 
(which with the part of the tube of which it is a continuation repre- 
sents the lamina of the petal) notched at the apex; the inner lip 
* The Plate is from a drawing by Mr. J. E. Sowerby, taken from Bot. Mag. No. 3, 
corrected from dried specimens. ‘ 
y ; 7] 
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