228 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



Besides the Christmas Rose, there are other species of Helle- 

 borus well worthy of cultivation ; and among the best is H. 

 atrorubens, with JBowers of a dark purple. The colour, though 

 somewhat dull, by turning up the usually pendent flower, is seen 

 to greater advantage, being then contrasted with the yellow 

 stamens. It has the quahty of throwing its flowers well above 

 ground to a height of nine to twelve inches, and is a free grower, 

 but rather scarce, requiring, as all the Hellebores do, a con- 

 siderable time to estabUsh itself after being disturbed. H. olym- 

 picus, with large rose-coloured flowers, and good habit, is very 

 similar, if not identical, with one grown as H. aichasicus, though 

 the true plant is really quite distinct from it. H. argutifolius is 

 remarkable in the genus for its beautiful, whitish, trifoliate leaves, 

 each secondary vein being terminated by a well-defined point. Its 

 flowers are a fresh lively green, and produced about the month 

 of March. 



The small HelUborus trifolius of LinnEus, now generally 

 known as Coptis trifolia, is a very diminutive and interesting 

 kind, with white flowers. It is quite easy of culture, but in many 

 gardens flowers seldom or sparsely ; in others abundantly, espe- 

 cially when on rockwork in moist peat soil. It is is also very 

 desirable for planting- on the margins of beds of Rliododendrons 

 and hardy Azaleas, in peat soil, associated with Rhoxia vir- 

 ginica and other dwarf plants. 



HIPPOCBEPIS COMa^K.— Horseshoe Vetch. 

 A SMALL prostrate British plant, with pretty little deep-yellow 

 flowers, in coronilla-like crowns, the upper petal faintly veined 

 with brown, the pinnate leaves small, and leaflets smooth. It is 

 a capital little plant for the upper ledges of rocks in dry posi- 

 ■ tions, as in such places the shoots will fall down some eighteen 

 or twenty inches ; easily raised from seed ; partial to chalky 

 soils ; rather common in the South of England, but not a native 

 of Ireland or Scotland. 



HOTEIA ZhSO^dGX.— Japanese H. 

 This fine plant is quite distinct in appearance, and readily 

 known by its much divided leaves ; the leaflets are oval, toothed, 

 and ciliated, of a fine shining green, and the whoje plant not 

 unlike a fern in aspect. From g,midst these rich masses of 

 shining leaves springs the sweet and abundant inflorescence ; the 



