PLATE XXVII. 



1. HELLEBORUS VIRIDIS, 



GREEN HELLEBORE. 



Tins genus contains plants of the herbaceous perennial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Polyandria Polygynia, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Multisiliqutg. 



The characters are: that there is no calyx, unless the corolla, 

 which in some species is permanent, be considered as such: the 

 corolla has five petals, roundish, blunt, large: nectaries several, very 

 short, placed in a ring, one-leafed, tubular, narrower at bottom : 

 mouth two-lipped, upright, emarginate, the inner lip shortest : the 

 stamina consist of numerous subulate filaments: anthers compressed, 

 narrower at bottom, upright: the pistillum consists of about six 

 germs, compressed: styles subulate: stigmas thickish: (five or more:) 

 the pericarpium consists of capsules (leguminous, beaked) compress- 

 ed, two-keeled: the lower keel shorter; the upper convex, gaping: 

 the seeds several, round, and fixed to the suture. 



The species cultivated are : 1. H. hy emails, Winter Hellebore, or 

 Yellow Winter Aconite; 2. H.niger, Black Hellebore, or Christmas 

 Rose; 3. H. viridis, Green Hellebore; 4. H.fcetidus, Slinking Helle- 

 bore, or Bear's-foot; 5. H, lividus, Livid Purple, or Great Three- 

 flowered Black Hellebore. 



The first has a tuberous transverse root, with many dependent 

 fibres, putting up several naked steins or scapes, simple, smooth, 

 round, from an inch or two to four inches in height, terminated by a 

 single leaf, spreading out horizontally in a circle, divided into five 

 parts almost to the base, and the parts simple, or divided into two, 

 three, or four lobes. In the bosom of this sits one large, upright, 



