4 RANUNCULACE^E. [Anemone. 



"Stem2—S ft. high. Flowers very numerous, yellow. Lobes of the leaves 

 varying in breadth." — Brit. Ft. 



III. Anemone, Linn. Anemone. 



Involucre of 2 — 3 divided leaves usually remote from the 

 flovsrer. Sepals petaloid 5 — 15 seldom 20. Petals 0. Carpels 

 with or without tails, on a thickened hemispherical or conical 

 receptacle. 



Early flowering herbaceous perennials with elegant white, red, yellow, blue or 

 purple blossoms, natives of temperate and cold, mostly inland countries, or on 

 high mountains of warmer regions over the greater part of the northern hemi- 

 sphere. Leaves mostly radical, those of the stem 2 — 3 together forming an invo- 

 lucre at the base of the peduncles. The genus is intimately allied to Clematis in 

 character, but in habit to Banunculus, with the acrimony of both. 



1. A. nemorosa, L. Wood Anemone. Leaves radical and 

 involucral similar ternate petiolate, leaflets stalked hi- and tri- 

 partite, the segments oblong acutely cut and lobed subtrifid, 

 stem single-flowered, leaflets of the 2:ierianth mostly 6 oblong or 

 elliptical obtuse, pericarps downy awnless. Br. Fl. p. 6. E. B. 

 t. 855. 



In thickets, groves, and moist shady pastures, abundantly. Fl. March — May. 



^- 

 E. Med. — Common everywhere about Ryde, around St. John's, in Apley wood, 



Quarr copse, &:c. Plentiful on sandy soil in Bordwood or Borthwood foresl. 



Va r. . Kowers pinkish purple. About America. 



Root creeping horizontally, about the thickness of a quill, fleshy and brittle. 

 Radical leaves one or two, sometimes wanting, on long, slightly hairy, grooved 

 petioles, ternate or subquinate, their leaflets stalked, the two lateral mostly bipar- 

 tite with trifid segments, the middle leaflet simply trifid, all the segments ovate or 

 wedge-shaped, acutely inciso-serrate, subtrifid, ciliated and slightly hairy on both 

 sides. Stem solitary, or sometimes two from the same root, taller than the leaves, 

 from about 8 to 12 inches high, erect, slightly angular, terminated by the triphyl- 

 lous involucre, the leaflets of which are similar to the radical ones, but with seg- 

 ments in general narrower and more acutely cut, their petioles much dilated. 

 Floivers solitary, an inch or more in diameter, white or tinged with light purple 

 externally, often almost wholly of that colour or of a deep rose-red, sometimes it 

 is said blue, a little droopin;;. Peduncle springing from the axis of the stem, 

 suberect, downy, about as long as the involucre. Leaflets of i\\e perianth 5 to 8, 

 rarely more, most commonly bui 6, oblongo-elliptical, vei-y obtuse, unequal, veiny, 

 thin and weak, glabrous, at first conniveut, finally spreading. Stamens nume- 

 rous, much shorter than the peiiaiith, spreading; a»i(Afrs bright yellow, roundish 

 ovate, compressed. Ovaries erect, greenish, silky and striated. Stigmas simple. 

 Pericarps in small roundish heads, very hairy, with nearly straight tapering beaks, 

 awnless. 



The Wood Anemone is the most generally difl'used of the very few species 

 found in Britain of this eminently continental genus, of which Sweden alone can 

 boast no less than seven (including Hepatica and Pulsatilla), whilst it is doubtful 

 whether more than two are really indigenous to this country. The present spe- 

 cies is found throughout Britain and in all parts of Europe from Italy to Lap- 

 land. It also inhabits Siberia, and a slight variety is common in the United 

 States and Canada. The plant being extremely gregarious, it is a great ornament 

 to our woods in early spring, when the but yet half-clothed soil is spangled with 

 the profusion of its starry blossoms. The variety with deep rose-red or purple 

 flowers is not very uncommon in our sandy districts. 



