6o4 



HELLEBORUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



HELLEBORUS. 



characteristic is that the leaf and flower 

 stems are beautifully mottled with purple 

 and green, while in H. niger they are of 

 a pafe green. H. altifoUiis also flowers 

 much earlier — in some seasons in the 

 beginning of October. The Riverston, 

 St. Bridg-ids, ^Madame Fourcade and Bath 

 varieties are all good. 

 * Other white kinds are H. olympicus—s. 

 .tall slender species with cup-shaped blos- 



other, and may be readily recognised by its 

 thick, dark green leaves, with five to seven 

 broad and coarsely-toothed divisions, the 

 veins of which are raised on the under 

 sides and are of a dark purple when young. 

 The blossoms, borne on forked stems 

 rising considerably above the foliage, are 

 dark purple. Under good cultivation the 

 leaves attain the length of li and 2 ft., 

 forming fine specimens, and flowers are 



Chribtiiu-i 



soms that appear in early spring and vary 

 from pure white to greenish-white. H. 

 ^^utiatiis is like it, but has the inside of 

 "the blossoms spotted with purple. There 

 are se\'eral forms ; in some the markings I 

 assume the form of small dots, in others I 

 of thin streaks. It is one of the parents [ 

 of the many Iseautiful hybrids. 1 



The finest of the red or crimson kinds 

 is H. coli/n'cus, which is larger than any I 



produced from the end of January to the 

 end of March. A fine hybrid has been 

 obtained by crossing it with H. guttatus, 

 the result being a form with large spread- 

 ing flowers lighter than in H. colc/iictis, 

 and profusely marked with dark carmine 

 streaks. Another hybrid between this 

 and H. altifolius resulted in a form with 

 larger flowers of a lighter purple. H. 

 ntro-rul?cj!s has leaves much thinner and 



