16 XATUIiAL HISTORY OF PL.IXTS. 



large number of stamens spirally arranged/ but forming twelve 

 secondary radiating rows in the following positions- — 1st, tliree rows 

 opposite each of the outer sepals ; 2nd]y, one row opposite each 

 interior sepal. All the stamens of the rows opposite the interior sepals 

 are fertile, each consisting of a free filament, somewhat dilated at the 

 tip, supporting a basifixed bilocular introrse anther dehiscing longi- 

 tudinally.^ But in six of the other rows the outermost stamen is trans- 

 formed into a little spur or nectary like that of other Hellebores^ (fig. 29). 

 The gyna?ceum is composed of six carpels' opposite these staminodes, 

 and formed like those of the true Hellebores. The fruits are follicles 

 dehiscing early'' to free the numerous seeds.' Each follicle is raised on 

 a narrow pedicel, in contact with, but not cohering to the pedicels of 

 its neighbours. The whole is surrounded by a persistent calyciform 

 involucre,' the three leaves of which alternate with the outer pieces 

 of the perianth. The organs of vegetation of H. lujemalis consist of 

 a shortened rhizome^ like that of other Hellebores bearing adventi- 

 tious roots, and shoots with leaves and flowers. The flowers arise 

 from the ground in winter, supported on a peduncle which it termi- 

 nates, and closely surrounded by the involucre of three compound 

 leaves, alternate with the outer sepals referred to above. The radical 

 leaves, few in number, and withering very early, are alternate, palmi- 

 veined, and dissected. We know but very few species of Eranthis 



(1807) 303. — DC, Prodr., i. 46. — Spach, in many other Ranunculacece (See Adansonia, 



Suit, a Btiff., vii. 321.— Endl., Gen., n. 4788. iv., 19).' 



— Payer, Oz-^aao^., 256. — H. Yi's., Adansonia, * The usual number ; rarely five, oftener from 



ii. 203, iv. 47. — B. H., Gen., 7, n. 19. — seven to ten in cultivated plants. 



Hellehoroides Adans., Fam. PL, ii. 458. •" Often nearly a month after flowering, that 



' This order is very evident in the young is to say, at the end of the winter, 



flower-bud ' These seeds are at first soft, with very thin 



, „ „ , ., coats, and very abundant fleshy albumen. They 



Pater, Organog., loc. ctt. ^f^^^ ^^.^,^.^^ maturity witliout the embryo be- 



' The anther opens by two internal somewhat coming developed ; it remains very small and 



oblique clefts, after which each cell spreads out deformed, probably through not having been 



edgewise as in Columbine. It usually even hap- fecundated. Often, too, Franthis like Fie aria 



pens that the inner margin of the opened cell produces no fruit. 



becomes more or less involute, and the outer s p^yee (1. cit.) considers that this verticil 



margin revolute. represents a calyx. In this respect Eranthis is 



* In form like a stalked cornet, with its orifice very analogous to Repaiica, showing that in Pa- 



truncated obliquely downwards and iuwards, and nunculacea tliere is an insensible transition from 



the lower and inner margin emarginate. The involucre to calyx, from calyx to corolla, and from 



inside contains nectar. The origin of these bodies, corolla to androceum ; wliich indicates, as we 



shown for tlie first time by Payer (/. cit.), who have stated, a sort of organic inferiority (See our 



did not consider them a.s petals, and was hence led article on Anemone below, and Adansonia, 



to regard as such the outer pieces of the perianth, iv. 6). 



this, we say, well sliows the nature of the so- ^ Payee, Hist, de la veg. de Z'Eranthis {Bull. 



called petals in the Hellebores themselves and Soc. Phil., April 27, 1844, 35). 



