THE CLEMATIS, PEONY, AND ANEMONE FAMILY. 507 



beautiful races of some of our most popular and useful hardy 

 and half-hardy flowers. It may be well to bear in mind that 

 nearly all the plants in this order are acrid, and often danger- 

 ously poisonous, especially Aconites, Hellebores, &c. 



Aconitum (Monk's-hood). A genus of Ranunculaceous plants, 

 natives of Europe, North America, and North Asia, and repre- 

 sented in cultivation by A. napellus, a poisonous species, its 

 roots having on many occasions been mistaken for those of 

 Horse-radish. A.ferox is used in North India as a poison for 

 arrows the poison, which is obtained from the roots, being of 

 remarkable virulence and activity when infused into the blood. 

 Readily multiplied from seed or by division. 



Anemone. A very attractive group of hardy, tuberous-rooted, 

 herbaceous plants, natives of southern and temperate Europe, 

 America, North India, and Japan. One species, A. nemorosa, 

 " Wood Anemone," is native, and might possibly be much im- 

 proved by crossing it with some of the more showy kinds from 

 the Mediterranean region. All are readily propagated by care- 

 ful division of the roots or tubers in the autumn, replanting them 

 in a nursery bed or border in a rich, sandy, and well-drained soil. 

 A. japonica and its varieties may be quickly increased to almost 

 any extent by root - cuttings planted in light sandy soil, and 

 placed in a close cool frame, or on a very slight bottom-heat 

 not above 60. Possibly A. vitifolia and other allied species 

 may also be increased in this manner, and certainly this re- 

 mark applies to all the tuberous-rooted kinds, such as A. blanda, 

 A. alpina, A.fulgens, A. coronaria, and others. The florists' 

 Anemones are varieties of A. coronaria and A. stellata (A. hor- 

 tensis] (see ' Bot. Mag.,' t. 123). A. narcissiflora is a very 

 chaste white-flowered species ; and A. japonica, with its seminal 

 varieties or " sports," is a very noble hardy plant. A. blanda 

 and A. apennina are beautiful spring-blooming kinds, bearing 

 light -blue flowers, both easily propagated by cutting up the 

 fleshy tubers. By crossing the spring - flowering kinds with 

 the autumn bloomers, an intermediate race might possibly be 

 obtained. New florists' varieties are readily obtained by sav- 

 ing seeds from a bed of good sorts, which should be sown as 

 soon as ripe in a cold pit or frame ; or they may be sown in a 

 warm, sheltered, sandy border, and allowed to remain until 

 they bloom. 



Mr Gordon raised numerous hybrid Anemones twenty or 

 thirty years ago in the Chiswick garden between A. japonica 

 and the Himalayan A. vitifolia, which were crossed, recipro- 

 cally; and while some beautiful seedlings resulted from the 

 union when A. japonica was made the female or seed-bearing 



