12 THE RANUNCULUS FAMILY. —_—_[Helleborus. 
IX. HELLEBORUS. HELLEBORE. 
Perennial herbs, with palmately or pedately divided leaves, of a 
paler green and more rigid than in most other Ranunculaceous plants. 
Sepals 5, large, greenish (in the British species), remaining till the 
fruit is nearly ripe. Real petals 8 to 10, very small, tubular, 2-lobed at 
the top. Stamens numerous, Carpels several, rather large, each with 
several seeds, 
A well-marked genus, but not numerous in species, chiefly south 
European and. west Asiatic. 
Flowers usually 3 or 4. Sepals spreading . 1. A. viridis. 
Flowers many, in a large eae with large ovate bracts. | ‘Sepals 
converging . : . 2 HH. fotidus. 
The Winter Brea (ec p. 2) was eee conskianan as a species of 
Helleborus. Jt is a small plant, with narrow, petal-like, yellow sepals, — 
surrounded by an involucre of green divided leaves, The white Christmas 
Rose is a true //elleborus (H. niger) from south-eastern Europe. 
1. H. viridis, Linn. (fig. 26). Green H., Bear’s-foot.—Radical leaves 
large, on long stalks, divided into 7 to 11 oblong, acute, toothed segments, 
3 to 4 inches long, the central ones free, the lateral ones on each side 
connected together at the base so as to form a pedate leaf. Stem 
scarcely exceeding the leaves, bearing usually 2, 3, or 4 large drooping 
flowers of a pale yellowish-green, and at each ramification a sessile leaf, 
much less divided than the radical ones, and the segments usually 
digitate. 
In pastures and thickets, especially in calcareous soils, and about old 
walls and ruins in western and central Europe, but not extending to the 
eastern frontier, nor far tothe north. A native of the south and south- 
east of England, and naturalised elsewhere. 1. early spring. 
2. H. foetidus, Linn. (fig. 27). Fetid H., Setter-wort.—Lower leaves 
not all radical, but mostly raised on the short perennial base of the stems, 
forming a larger and thicker tuft than in H. viridis, their segments 
narrower, less toothed, stiffer, and more shining, their outer lobes at a 
less distance from the central ones. Flower-stem above a foot high, 
with a large close panicle of drooping flowers, of a pale green, often 
tinged with purple, the concave sepals giving them a globular form. 
Bracts at the ramifications of the panicle ovate and entire, or shortly - 
2-lobed at the summit. 
In stony places, chiefly in limestone districts, in southern Europe, ex- 
tending here and there into central Europe, but neither a northern nor 
an eastern plant. In England it is wild in Hampshire and Sussex, but, 
like the last, it is in most cases an introduced plant. Fl. early spring. 
X. AQUILEGIA. COLUMBINE. 
Perennial herbs, with the leaves chiefly radical, ternately divided, 
with distinct stalked segments or leaflets. Sepals 5, coloured. Petals 
5, each terminating below in a horn-shaped spur, projecting below the 
calyx. Stamens numerous. Carpels 5, each with several seeds. 
A small but very distinct genus, widely spread over the north tem- 
perate regions of both hemispheres, especially in mountain districts. 
1. A. vulgaris, Linn. (fig. 28) Common C.—Radical and lower 
leaves in a large tuft, each with a long stalk, once, twice, or even 
