THE WOOD ANEMONE— continued. 
stalks some distance apart. The leaves rise on slender petioles and are mostly 
ternately divided into sessile, irregularly-lobed, cut, or pinnatifid leaflets, of a some- 
what sombre shade of green, slightly hairy on the margins and chief veins. In June, 
after the flowers are over, it is not uncommon to find the under surface of the leaves 
covered with the little pale yellowish cups of a parasitic fungus, the White-spored 
Cluster-cup {Mcidium leucospermum DC.), which also occurs on their upper surfaces. 
Dillenius, who, in 1724, edited Ray’s “Synopsis,” describes and figures a leaf so 
attacked as a fern, under the name Filix lobata, globulis pulverulentis undique aspersa, 
adding that he found it in the hortus siccus of Jacob Bobart the younger, who was 
Superintendent of the Oxford Botanical Garden from 1680 to 1719, labelled as the 
Conjurer of Chalgrave' s Fern. Chalgrave is probably Chalgrove, not far from Oxford, 
memorable for the skirmish in which John Hampden received his death wound ; but 
we know nothing more of the “ Conjurer.” 
The three stalked, involucral bracts half-way up the flower-stalk closely resemble 
the foliage-leaves in form and colour ; whilst the six, or less commonly five to nine, 
oblong sepals are white, or more or less deeply tinged with pink, or, in the rare 
variety Robinsoniana^ with blue. The sepals are free from hairs and ultimately 
spread out horizontally. Drooping in the bud, the flowers rise erect in fine weather, 
opening from March to May ; but bend downward in dull or wet weather, at night, 
or after pollination. This seems in this case to serve mainly as a protection for the 
pollen, as the flower seems to contain no honey and to be only visited by the lower 
types of insect — flies, beetles, and short-tongued bees — for the sake of its pollen. 
The stamens all bear anthers ; and the stigmas terminating the short, straight 
styles come to maturity at the same time as does the pollen, so that the flower may 
often be self-pollinated. The ovaries are downy ; but the styles do not elongate into 
tails as in the Pasque-flower. 
Beautiful as is this simple, blushing, little wild flower, a more lasting blossom 
with its own distinct beauty of form is produced by a double variety, frequent in 
gardens, in which the stamens are replaced by a dense white tuft of narrow petals. 
