EANUNCULACEJl^l. 



13 



ceum. The calyx is composed of five sepals, green, or tinged witli 

 purple, of quincuncial aestivation (fig. 28). The corolla is some- 

 times formed of five petals' alternate with the 

 sepals. They have the shape of a horn, with 

 a dentate opening sloping downwards and in- 

 wards. The base of the tube is dilated into 

 a rounded pouch, of which the glandular 

 lining secretes nectar. The very numerous 

 stamens arranged in a continuous spiral have 

 free filaments, and basifixed, two-celled, ex- 

 trorse anthers dehiscing longitudinally. The 

 gynasceum is formed of three" free^ carpels, 

 opposite the anterior petal and the two posterior ones, each 

 composed of a unilocular ovary tapering above into a style, whose 

 somewhat dilated apex is covered with stigmatic papillse." Along 

 the whole length of the inner angle of the carpel is a vertical groove, 

 and within the cell of the ovary is a placenta occupying its inner 

 angle, and supporting two rows of horizontal ovules placed back to 

 back.* The fruit is composed of as many follicles^ as there were 



Jlellehorus foetidun. 

 Fig. 28. Fia. 29. 



Flower-bud. Petal. 



1 This equality of number with the sepals 

 is not most usually observed. The number 

 varies, not only in this species, but also, as 

 we shall see, in the other species of this genus. 

 As to the name of ' petal' which we have applied 

 to these organs, we have used it here only with 

 great hesitation, and we have grounds for think- 

 ing that, by analogy with Nigella, Trollius, and 

 especially Eranthis, these nectaries, as they used 

 to be called, represent the lower or outermost 

 stamens, transformed into staminodcs of a form 

 not more surprising than that observed in the 

 same organs of the genera above described. The 

 arrangement, too, of these staminodes answers to 

 that of the fertile stamens, of which they begin 

 the series The symmetry of all these parts has 

 been studied very exactly by Pater {Organog., 

 258), whose observations on this subject we here 

 sum up. The nectaries of certain Hellebores, as 

 H. niger, are arranged in twenty-one rays, e.\- 

 tending from the circumference towards the 

 centre, whose angular divergence is -^j. Tlie 

 fertile stamens continue this spiral as also the 

 carpels. In some other species there are 

 usually only five nectaries, beginning five rows 

 of stamens alternate with the sepals, and this 

 number, we used to say, might be observed in 

 H.foetidus. But here, eight may be more often 

 counted, one corresponding as in Nigella to sepal 1. 

 and one to sepal 5, while two are opposite to each 

 of the other sepals. When only seven, six. or 



five are seen, it is simply owing to the fi\ct that 

 the transformation into staminodes has not been 

 effected on the first stamen of one, two, or three 

 of the rays. Besides, the number of staminodes 

 only very rarely indicates the number of fertile 

 stamens, for in H.fatidtis, which has often only 

 from five to eight nectaries, and rarely more, 

 there are six rows of stamens before sepals 4 and 5, 

 five before sepal 3, and two before sepals 1 and 2. 



- There are rarely more than three, four, or five 

 opposite the sepals ; but two are pretty often seen, 

 one posterior, and the other nearly anterior. 



^ //. vesicarius ArrcH. — Boiss. has the ear- 

 pels united half way up when ripe, as in certain 

 NigellcB. 



* The styles have their tips at first reflexed, 

 and covered with whitish stigmatic papillae. 

 Later the style becomes erect and blackish. 



* These ovules have but one envelope. They 

 are remarkable for the conical form of the very 

 thick raphe, projecting and fleshy towards its base. 



^ The dehiscence of these follicles is not that 

 usually seen, when the placenta separates into 

 two bands, which adhere to the borders of the 

 opened out carpellary leaf. Here both borders of 

 this separate from the placenta from above down- 

 wards. The placenta then remains free, as a 

 whitish fleshy column supporting the two rows 

 of seeds. These are black and smooth, with a 

 thick projection formed by the white fleshy 

 raphe. 



