u 



NATURAL niSTORY OF PLANTS. 



distinctions in formini^ a certain number of sections in the genus 

 Anemone.' The acliene itself may be either glabrous, or covered 



with a thick down, which, as 

 in J. virghiiana (figs. 81 and 

 82), envelopes all the carpels 

 with a kind of fleece, which 

 assists in their dispersion." 



All the Anemones are herbs 

 with perennial subterranean 

 stems, much branched, and 

 known in commerce as 

 "roots" {Yx.pattes)? These 

 rhizomes give rise to aerial 

 branches, which bear usually 

 alternate leaves, often perfect, 

 the petiole dilated into a 

 sheath below, the blade simple, lobed, or even deeply dissected and 

 compound, which difference may be noticed in passing from one 

 leaf to another on the same plant. The flowers are usually terminal, 

 and often solitary ; but otherwise younger flowers spring from the 

 axils of the upper leaves, forming a sort of cyme with a recurrent 

 inflorescence. Most usually one or several of the uppermost leaves 

 form under the flower an involucre, which may simulate a calycine 

 whorl. Sometimes its elements are independent of one another, and 

 the leaves may even retain their petioles, as in the Wood Anemone, 

 (fig. 79). Sometimes, on the contrary, they become connate, so that 

 the involucre appears single below, while above it is variably divided. 

 Its leaves are sometimes sterile, and sometimes provided with axillary 

 buds, which expand after the terminal flower.^ Usually the involucre 



Anemone virginiana. 

 Fig. 82. 

 Longitudinal section of fruit. 



Fig. 81. 

 Fruit. 



' Sec p. 42, note 4. 



^ De Canuolle makes this the chief charac- 

 teristic of his ■section PulsatilloideSfV/hich includes 

 only species from the Capo. 



^ On the subterranean organs'of most Raniin- 

 culacea (as we have already said), and especially 

 on those of the Anemones, the whole of the 

 remarkable works of luMlscu should be read. 

 What refers to the Anemones was published in 

 the Bolanisclie Zeilung (4, Jan. 11, 1856) and 

 translated in the Ann. Sc. Nat. (ser. 4, vi. 

 214). In this work, the author refers to other 

 publications of himself and others on the same 

 subject ; he describes the mode of formation of 



the more or less ramified rhizomes of the Ane- 

 mones, especially A. coronaria, Pulsatilla, and 

 Jlepatica. He further shows that the plan of 

 evolution of the subterranean parts might be 

 used to characterise certain sections in the genus 

 Anemone ; and hence, refusing to leave A. nemo- 

 rosa and ranunculoldes in the same group with 

 A. sylvestris and haldensis, he proposes to esta- 

 blish a distinct section for these last, which he 

 terms Hyalectryon. 



■• This is constant in each of the leaves of the 

 involucre of A. narcissijhra L., which De Can- 

 DOLLE makes the type of bis section Omalocarpus, 

 and of the neighbouring species, A. sihirica. 



