I. RANUNCULACEiE. 



19 



VIII. TROLLIUS. TROLLIUS. 



Perennial herbs, with divided leaves and yellow flowers. Sepals 5 to 

 15, large and coloured like petals. Real petals about as many, small, 

 linear, and flat. Stamens numerous. Carpels several, with several 

 seeds in each. 



Besides our species, the genus comprises but very few, all from north- 

 ern Asia or America. 



1. Globe Trollius. Trollius europseus, Linn. (Fig. 24.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 28. Globejloiver.) 



A glabrous, erect plant, 1 to 2 feet high, 

 the stem simple or nearly so. Radical 

 leaves not unlike those of the meadow 

 Ranunculus, palmately divided into 3 or 

 5 segments, which are again lobed and 

 cut. Stem-leaves few, smaller, and nearly 

 sessile. Flowers large, of a pale yellow, 

 with 10 to 15 broad concave sepals con- 

 verging into a kind of globe, usually con- 

 cealing the petals, stamens, and carpels. 



In moist woods and mountain pastures, 

 in northern and central Europe, and in 

 the great mountain ranges of the South 1 °' 



to the Caucasus. Not a common plant generally in Britain, yet 

 pretty frequent from Wales to the Grampians, and in Ireland. Fl. 



IX. HELLEBORE. HELLEBORUS. 



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 many, in a large panicle, with large ovate bracts. 



Sepals converging 2. Fetid H. 



Flowers usually 3 or 4. Sepals spreading 1. Green H. 



c2 



