ANEMONE FLOWERS 71 



Plate III. and it is scarcely surprising that some 

 of the earlier herbalists thought it a buttercup, not 

 the colour of the flowers alone, but the form of the 

 foliage being reminiscent of the blossoms and leaves 

 of one of the commonest of our buttercups. Hence, 

 too, it is botanically the A. ranunculoides, the ran- 

 unculus-like anemone. The petaloid sepals vary 

 in number in all the anemones, being anything in 

 individual flowers from five to nine, but with a 

 partiality for six. The possession of but five in 

 the flower we figure makes the effect yet more 

 buttercup-like. The typical growth of all these 

 anemones is the throwing up of a single stem, 

 surmounted by a single blossom, and having some 

 little distance from its upper extremity a ring of 

 three more or less elaborately cut leaves : the rising 

 of two stems from this ring a feature that we see 

 in our drawing of the yellow anemome is abnormal, 

 though in looking through our plants we have found 

 it in several instances. The mountain anemone 

 Plate IV. is seen at its best in the Alpine 

 pastures, but it readily accommodates itself to culti- 

 vation. Its flowers are of a delicate bluish purple. 

 The Pasque flower, a British species, must also 

 find a place in our collection. It is somewhat 

 lacking in the grace of our other anemones, but 

 its deep purple flowers and very finely cut leaves 

 give it a welcome individuality. It is a plant of 

 the chalk and limestone districts. 



