H E L 



H E L 



and spread from each other: the flowers are 

 white, and appear in June and July, but are not 

 succeeded by seeds in this climate. The leaves, 

 when bruised, emit an agreeable odour, for which 

 it is by some much esteemed. The gardeners 

 give it the title of Madam Maintenon. It grows 

 naturally in the Canary Islands. 



Culture. — The first is raised either by seeds 

 or cuttings. In the first method the seeds may 

 be sown upon a moderate hotbed, or in pots to 

 be plunged in a hot-bed in the early spring. 

 When the plants have attained some growth, 

 they should he removed into separate small pots 

 filled with light earth, replunging them into 

 the hot-bed, and giving them proper shade till 

 well rooted. 



They should afterwards be gradually inured 

 to the open air, so as to be set out in warm situa- 

 tions in the summer. In the autumn and win- 

 ter they should have the protection of a good 

 green-house. 



The cuttings should be planted in pots of 

 light earth in the summer season, plunging them 

 in a mild hot-bed. They soon take root, and 

 afterwards require the same management as the 

 seedlings. They seldom, however, make so good 

 plants. 



The three following sorts are increased by 

 sowing the seeds on a hot-bed in the early 

 spring, removing them as the heat declines to 

 another hot-bed when necessary, managing them 

 as Balsams and other tender annuals; and in 

 the middle of the summer, removing them to the 

 situations wdicre they are to flower, with balls of 

 earth about their roets. 



The last sort is increased by planting cuttings 

 of the young shoots in the summer in pots, or 

 in a shadv border, giving them water pretty 

 freely. When well rooted, they may in the latter 

 case be. carefully taken up and put in pots, 

 placing them in shady situations till fresh root- 

 ed. 



They afterwards require the protection of the 

 green-house from frosts and severe weather, be- 

 ing placed with plants of the more hardy sorts, 

 such as Myrtles, and that require free air in mild 

 weather. 



Tim first and last sorts are very ornamental 

 among potted green-house plants of the more 

 hardy kinds; and the others among the more 

 tender flowery plants in pots and borders. 

 HELLEBORE". See Hellebokus. 

 llfcXLEBORUS, a genus containing plants 

 of the herbaceous perennial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Polyandrla 

 Poly gynia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 RlultUiliqucB. 



The characters are : that there is no calyx, un- 

 less the corolla, which in sonic species is perma- 

 nent, be considered as such : the corolla has five 



petals, roundish, blunt, large : nectaries several, 

 very fhort, placed in a ring, one-leafed, tubular, 

 narrower at bottom: mouth two-lipped, upright, 

 cmarginate, the inner lip shortest: the stamina 

 consist of numerous subulate filaments : anthers 

 compressed, narrower at bottom, upright: the 

 pistillum consists of about eix germs, compres- 

 sed: styles subulate: stigmas thickish : (five or 

 more:) the pericarpium consists of capsules (le- 

 guminous, beaked) compressed, 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. 7iiger, Black Hellebore, or Christmas 

 Rose; 3. H. viridis, Green Hellebore; 4. H. 

 faetidus, Stinking Hellebore, 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 

 stems 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, yellow flower. It is native of 

 Lombard v, and flowers with us from January to 

 March. 



The second has transverse roots, externally 

 rough and knotted, with many dependent fibres, 

 and some, large roots striking down ; the scapes 

 from six inches to near a foot in length, round, 

 upright, variegated with red, rising from a sheath, 

 and terminated usually with one flower, some- 

 times two, and very rarely three : corolla very 

 large, generally white at first, but frequently 

 with a tint of red, growing deeper with age, but 

 finally becoming green. It is a native of Italy, &c. 

 flowering from December to March. Martyn 

 observes, that " it has the name of Black Hel- 

 lebore from the colour of the root ; and of 

 Chrhmas Rose, from the time of flowering and 

 the colour of the corolla." 



The third has a round stem, a little branched 

 at top, but not near so much as in the next sort ; 

 leafy, reddish at the base, upright, smooth, a 

 foot or eighteen inches in height : the leaves 

 not of a stiff leathery consistence, as in the next 

 species, but soft and of a lighter green ; those 

 from the bottom are on long petioles, but those 

 on the stem sit close to their sheaths : the leaflets 

 (seven to ten) lanceolate, acuminate, sharply 

 serrate, smooth, gashed, usually trifid, the di- 

 visions sometimes deeply lobed ; and at the base 

 of each peduncle is a similar leaf, only smaller : 

 the peduncles axillary, an inch long, round ; 

 supporting two (sometimes only one) nodding, 



