FLOWERING PLANTS. 1133 
6 to 12 inches high, with the involucre rather above two-thirds of 
the length from the base. Flower white, or tinged externally with 
purple or pink, sometimes wholly purple. Peduncle hooked in 
fruit, which consists of a round head of downy carpels. Plant with 
scattered hairs. Lateral segments of each set of leaflets deeply 
cleft ; central one only cut or serrate. 
Wood Anemone. Wind-Flower. 
The specific name from nemorosus, woody. This most delicate and pretty species is 
truly 
“The coy anemone, that ne’er uncloses 
Her leaves until they’re blown on by the wind.” 
Its early appearance, after the dull months of winter, invests it, perhaps, with a greater 
poetical charm than its real beauty would demand, if it were found surrounded with 
other flowers. It is certain, however, that on a fine unclouded day nothing can be 
seen more lovely than a mass of these bright, delicate little flowers, surrounded by their 
natural guardians, the dark finely-cut leaves. They are natural barometers, and close 
at the approach of rain. Innocent as is their appearance, they retain all the acrid 
nature of their family, and are poisonous and biting to the tongue. The older herbalists 
recommend applications of various parts of the plant for headaches, tertian agues, and 
rheumatic gout. By garden culture the stamens become transformed into petals, which 
renders it an object of greater admiration to the florist than when in its original 
simplicity. 
SPECIES IV—ANEMONE RANUNCULOIDES. Linn. 
Prate XII. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. III. Ran. Tab. XLVITI. Fig. 4663. 
Flowers erect, solitary or in pairs. Involucre of 3 almost sessile 
ternately-divided leaves, with lobes pinnatifid or cut, rather acute. 
Calyx spreading of 5 (rarely 6 to 8) oval sepals, slightly downy 
exteriorly. Carpels elliptical, compressed, downy. Radical leaves 
with 3 to 5 divisions similar to the segments of the involucre. 
This species has scarcely so much claim as 4. Apennina to be 
considered as a naturalized plant; it has, however, long grown in 
ornamental grounds, as at Abbot’s Langley in Herts, and near 
Worksop, in Nottinghamshire; it is also reported from Kent, 
Norfolk, Suffolk, Salop, Leicester, and York. 
[England.] Perennial. Spring. 
Very similar to 4. nemorosa in habit ; but at once distinguishable 
by the bright yellow flowers, and the much more shortly-stalked 
divisions of the involucre and leaves; the head of the carpels is less 
drooping than in the last. 
Yellow Wood Anemone, or Crowfoot Wood Anemone. 
