THE CHRISTMAS ROSE. 35 



" Alas ! on thy forsaken stem 



My heart shall long recline, 

 And mourn the transitory gem, 

 - And make the story mine ! 

 So on my joyless winter hour 

 Has oped some fair and fragrant flower, 

 With smile as soft as thine. 



" Like thee the vision came and went, 



Like thee it bloomed and fell, 

 In momentary pity sent 



Of fairer climes to tell ; 

 So frail its form, so short 'its stay, 

 That nought the lingering heart could say, 



But hail, and fare thee well ! : ' 



In the growth of the new taste for hardy plants, which 

 we may regard as a revival of old-fashioned gardening-, 

 the hellebores have obtained a fair share of attention, and 

 they now constitute a very important feature of the hardy 

 garden. As the trumpet daffodils are called " Lent lilies/' 

 so the spring flowering hellebores are called " Lent roses." 

 One of the most interesting of the late flowering kinds 

 is the sweet hellebore (Hellebores odor us), which produces 

 pale green leaves, and greenish drooping flowers which are 

 agreeably scented. The Olympian hellebore (H. Olympic**) 

 is a handsome plant, producing purplish flowers. The 

 Oriental hellebore (//. Orientalis] is strikingly handsome, 

 the flowers being large, of a soft rose-colour, and accom- 

 panied by an ample and elegant leafage. The purple 

 hellebore (H. atrorubeus) produces beautiful flowers, which 

 at first are violet-purple, and afterwards dull purple, with 

 an admixture of green. There remain two fine species that 

 are particularly well adapted to plant in woodland walks. 

 They are H. abcha.ricua, with greenish flowers, and //. 

 fteiidus, with greenish-purple flowers. These have hand- 



