20 



THE EANQNCULUS FAMILY. 



The Winter Aconite of our gardens, which has been occasionally met 

 with in England, apparently wild, but probably only the remains of 

 cultivation, was formerly considered as a species of Hellebore, but now 

 forms the genus Eranthis, It 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 Hellebore (If. niger), from south- 

 eastern Europe. 



1. Green Hellebore. Helleborus viridis, Linn. (Eig. 25.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 200.) 



Radical leaves large, on long stalks, di- 

 vided 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 ex- 

 ceeding 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 to the north. He- 

 corded from many parts of England, but in most cases introduced. 

 It may however be really indigenous in some of the southern and east- 

 ern counties. Fl. early spring. 



Fig. 25. 



2. Fetid Hellebore. Helleborus foetidus, Linn. (Eig. 26.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 613. Bears-foot.) 



Lower leaves not all radical, but mostly raised on the short peren- 

 nial base of the stems, forming a larger and thicker tuft than in the 

 green H., their segments narrower, less toothed, stiffer, and more shin- 

 ing, 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 two-lobed at the summit. 



