Part II. ANEMONE. 137 



naturalised in the groves and shrubberies of all parts of these 

 islands. It is welcome in the garden and on the rockwork ; 

 but it will be only when we see it scattered amongst and 

 contrasting with the native Anemones in our woods, or making 

 glorious mixtures of gold and blue with the Buttercup-like Wind- 

 flower in open spots along shrubbery walks, or running wild 

 among any other dwarf plants with which the woods or pleasure- 

 grounds are graced, that we shzdl be able to realise the fact that 

 this Italian beauty can add a new charm to the British spring. 

 The Apennine Anemone flowers in March and April, is very 

 readily increased by division, and grows about four to six inches 

 in height. 



ANEMONE BLAND A. — Winter Windflower. 



This is a near relative of the Apennine Windflower, and a very 

 lovely plant, deserving to be cultivated in every garden in the 

 British Isles. It is of a fine deep sky-blue, like A. apennina, 

 and has larger and more finely rayed flowers, dwarfer, harder, 

 and smoother leaves, and blooms in the very dawn of earliest 

 spring, during mild open winters, and in warm parts showing 

 as early as Christmas, flowering continuously too, so that it 

 may be seen in flower late in spring with its relative, A. 

 apenniiia. It is perfectly hardy and vigorous, and, from the 

 harder and smoother texture of the leaves, can stand exposure 

 to cutting winds and sleets even better than the very hardy 

 Apennine A. In a word, it combines every good quality of a 

 hardy alpine plant ; should be grown on every rockwork, 

 planted on bare banks that catch the early sun in the pleasure- 

 ground ; should adorn the spring garden, and, when sufficiently 

 plentiful, might be naturalised in half-wild places along with 

 other free and hardy members of its charming family. It does 

 not grow more than four inches high, and is multiplied easily 

 by division. Botanically this is chiefly distinguished from A. 

 apennina by its carpels being topped with a black-pointed style, 

 and by the sepals being smooth on the outside. When 

 visiting the York collection in the spring of 1868, this in- 

 valuable plant struck me as being distinct from the Apennine A., 

 among batches of which, received from Greece, it was at first 

 inadvertently distributed by Messrs. Backhouse, and I soon 

 afterwards ascertained it to be ^ . blanda. 



