THE CHRISTMAS ROSE. 34 
“ Stus! on thy forsaken stem 
My heart shall long recline, 
And mourn the transitory gem, 
And make the story mine! 
So on my joyless winter hour 
Has oped some fair and tragrant flower, 
With smile as soft as thine, 
“ Tike thee the vision came aud went, 
Like thee it bloomed and fell, 
In momentary pity sent 
Of fairer climes to tell; 
So frail its form, so short its stay, 
That nought the lingering heart could suy, 
But hail, and fare thee well!” 
In the growth of the new taste for hardy plants, which 
we may regard as a revival of old-fashioned gardening, 
the hellebores have obtained a fair share of attention, and 
they now constitute a very important feature of the hardy 
garden. As the trumpet datfodils are called “ Lent lilies,” 
so the spring flowering hellebores are called ‘‘ Lent roses.” 
One of the most interesting of the late flowering kinds 
is the sweet hellebore (He//edorns odorus), which produces 
pale green leaves, and greenish drooping flowers which are 
agreeably scented. The Olympian hellebore UZ. Olyipicus) 
is a handsome plant, producing purplish flowers. The 
Oriental hellebore (2. Orientulis) is strikingly handsome, 
the flowers being large, of a soft vose-colour, and accom- 
panied by an ample and elegant leafage. The purple 
hellebore (A. atrorudevs) produces beautiful flowers, which 
at first are violet-purple, and afterwards dull purple, with 
an admixture of green. There remain two fine species that 
are particularly well adapted to plant in woodland walks. 
They are H. abchasicus, with greenish flowers, and H. 
fietidus, wita greenish-purple flowers. These have hand- 
