CANADIAN WILDFLOWERS.-III. 

 The Buttercup Family— (Continued). 

 anemone tribe — Genus Hepcitica. 



S there any need to describe the hepaticas ? They are so widely 

 istributed, and open their pretty blossoms so early in the spring, 

 that they are favorites with every woodland wanderer, 

 known to some by the name of Liver-leaf, to some as Snow- 

 flower, and to a few as Wind-flower, though the latter name 

 is usually given to the andmone. Bryant alludes to it under 

 the name Windflower, where he says : 



" Lodged in sunny clefts, 



Where the cold breeze comes not, blooms alone 

 The little Wind-flower, whose just opened eye 

 Is blue as the spring heaven it gazes at." 



Linnaeus named it Anemone hepatica, but later botanists have 



followed the earlier name given by Dillenius. They also 



make two species of our hepaticas, giving to tfiose plants in 



which the leaves are composed of three obtuse, or rounded 



lobes, the name of Hepatica triloba ; and to those in which the lobes instead of 



being rounded are acute, or pointed, the name Hepatica acutiloba. Beyond this 



difference in the form of the leaves there does not seem to be any permanent 



features to distinguish one from the other. In both of them the involucre leaves 



are placed so near to the flower that they might be easily mistaken for a calyx, 



and in those plants that have rounded lobes these leaves are rounded, while the 



acute lobed have the involucre leaves also acute. The flowers in both have no 



petals, but the sepals are colored, sometimes a pale purple, oftener a pure azure 



blue, "as the spring heaven it gazes at," and sometimes pink, or white; they also 



vary in number from six to twelve. In some localities one will find only the 



round lobed variety ; again in others the acute lobed seems to be the only form. 



Both forms are to be found in the vicinity of Toronto ; the round lobed prevail. 



ing in the vicinity of Victoria Park, the acute lobed on the western slopes of the 



Don, and seems to be the 'only form'in the vicinity of Whitby. In both, the 



leaves are radical, that is, grow directly from the root, the flowers single, perfect 



but not complete, and borne on long peduncles, flower stalks, from hairy scapes. 



Both prefer partial shade, and a somewhat sandy loam. 



(347) 



