34 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



the Hertfordshire lanes it is, we know, a plant of frequent 

 occurrence; and Curtis, in his "Flora Londinensis," 

 gives Finchley as a metropolitan station, though, doubt- 

 less, the wood to which he refers has long ago been 

 overwhelmed by the inevitable march of the men of bricks 

 and mortar. 



The green hellebore begins to flower in February, and 

 continues to blossom until the middle of April. The five 

 large spreading bodies forming the conspicuous cup of the 

 flower are the sepals of the calyx; the petals are very 

 much smaller, from eight to ten in number, tubular, green, 

 and divided into two lobes at the top. The stamens are 

 numerous, and from their difference in colour from the calyx 

 and corolla, are decidedly conspicuous, the yellowish 

 convex mass of anthers telling out clearly from the green 

 cup in which they stand. The flowers of the green helle- 

 bore are drooping, and ordinarily somewhat few in number, 

 the leaves large, and divided into numerous fine and deeply- 

 toothed segments. The upper leaves are sessile, the lower 

 borne on long foot-stalks, and all glossy in effect, and of a 

 dull and bluish green. 



We find an interesting reference to the hellebore in 

 Bishop Mant's poem on the Laws of Nature : 



" Why is the lowly speedwell hlue ? 

 The strawberry white ? The nettle spread 

 With yellowish- white and purplish-red ? 

 What gives the pileworts golden sheen ? 

 The hellebores their blossoms green ? 

 One purple-tipped, the other still 

 Verdant throughout." 



The first of the two hellebores referred to is the H. 

 foetid**, or bear's foot ; the second is the plant we illus- 

 trate. In our figure it will be seen that the sepals are en- 



