RANUNCULACEiE 49 



Britain in almost any soil, and readily increased from seed or by 

 division in early spring. T. aquilegifoUum is particularly ornamental 

 in gardens, and likes shade and a light soil. 



Anemone L. 



Rootstock perennial. Leaves radical. Involucral bracts com- 

 pound and often leaf-like. Flowers usually solitary. No petals. 

 Sepals 5 or more, coloured and petal-like, longer than the stamens, 

 which are numerous. Carpels numerous, i-seeded, often ending 

 in a long feathery awn. 



A large genus of some 85 species, found in most of the temperate 

 regions of the world, and chiefly characterised by the three ' leaves ' 

 placed in a whorl from half-way up the stem to very near the flowers, 

 according to the species. 



Anemone Hepatica L. (Plate IV.) 



Root short, fibrous. Stem naked, velvety. Leaves leathery, 

 heart-shaped at the base with 3 equal lobes, often purple below, 

 persistent and with long petioles. Flowers blue, rose, or white, 

 solitary. Involucre of 3 oval, entire leaflets, resembling a calyx. 

 Sepals 6-g, glabrous. Carpels covered with tomentum, with short, 

 glabrous beak. 



The blue form is the commonest, and it is abundant in shady 

 places and woods among the hills, especially on Jurassic limestone. 

 In the Eastern Pyrenees it flourishes from about 2500-4500 feet. 

 March to June, according to situation. 



Distribution. — Nearly all Europe ; Siberia, North America. 



In Mr. Flem well's Alpine Flowers and Gardens, where is a most 

 delicate picture of Hepatica in the woods at Bex, in the Rhone Valley, 

 he says : ' As the snow recedes, the brown bed of the pine forests 

 is decked with myriads of Hepatica ; their thick clusters of mauve- 

 blue blossoms, relieved here and there by the rarer forms of white 

 and rose, glint gaily among the sombre tree-trunks, creating a 

 veritable laughing fairyland where, usually, all is sedate, if not 

 actually gloomy.' In gardens it likes a deep, light soil, with some 

 leaf-mould, and should be disturbed as little as possible. 



Anemone narcissiflora L. 



Rootstock oblique, premorse, with branching fibres. Stem erect, 

 4-12 inches high, simple, with several leaves at the base, villous 

 like the leaves, and bearing a terminal 3-6 flowered umbel. Root- 

 leaves stalked, palmate, 3-5 partite, sparsely villous or glabrous 

 on the upper side ; the segments usually doubly 3-cleft. Bracts 

 3-4, sessile, smaller and less divided than the root-leaves and often 

 only 2-3 cleft. Sepals usually 5, glabrous on both sides. Flowers 

 white, often tinted with pale rose, f to i^ inch in diameter ; seed- 

 vessel erect. Carpels not bearded, very shortly beaked. 



