Anemones 



queville my very good friend." There is no figure of it in 

 the original 1597 edition, and Johnson has used Clusius' 

 figure, and in his additional note mentions that, unlike the 

 single form, it has leaves in two places on its stalk, which, 

 together with the beautiful old woodcut, show that it is 

 not the neat double form that he is referring to but the 

 one we now know as A. nemorosa bracteata, fl.pl., a ragged, 

 untidy thing that never comes two seasons alike. 



Now Clusius tells us the history of this and a double 

 purple form which seems to have been lost, how that they 

 had only recently been discovered, and had not been 

 described elsewhere. He had not seen their flowers until 

 the April of 1593, though one John Boisot had sent him 

 the plants two years previously, directing that they should 

 be kept in pots and somewhat starved, for with excessive 

 luxury they would degenerate and bear single flowers. 

 Both had bracteate leaves under the flowers as well as 

 the usual involucre of three leaves, and had been found by 

 chance a few years previously in two woods, of which he 

 gives the names, in Belgium. It is very unlikely, then, that 

 Gerard knew of them prior to the publication in 1601 of 

 Clusius' Historia, and I am sure if he had seen one with 

 the two sets of involucral leaves he would have mentioned 

 that peculiarity. 



I much prefer the neat, double form to that eccentric 

 Mad Hatter and March Hare in one, the variable bracteata, 

 which in some seasons may be nearly single, then in 

 another the green bracts will be mixed among the white 

 sepals, or they may be striped with green, or at other 

 times stained with a dull purple. There is a mild excite- 

 ment to be obtained from growing such an unreliable 

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