HEPATICA TRILOBA. THREE-LOBED-LEAVED HEPATICA. 
Class XIII. POLYANDRIA. Order III. POLYGYNIA. 
Natural Order, RANUNCULACE.E. THE CROW-FOOT TRIBE. 
Hepatica (from hepaticos, of or relating to the liver. The three lobes of the leaves have been compared 
to the three lobes of the liver.) Dill, giess. p. 108, t. 5. Lin. hort. cliff. 223. D. C. syst. 1, p. 215, 
prod. 1, p. 22. Involucrum of 3 entire leaves, in the form of a calyx, close to the flower. Calyx of 6 to 9 
petal-like coloured sepals, disposed into two or three series. Stamens and ovaries numerous. Carpels tail- 
less. Small perennial early-flowering evergreen herbs, with 3-7-lobed leaves. Scapes 1-flowered, numerous, 
rising from the same root. Leaves cordate, 3-lobed; lobes quite entire, ovate, acutish; petioles and scapes 
rather hairy. Native of many parts of Europe in hedges and shady places. Colour of flowers usually blue; 
found in gardens, but seldom if ever in the fields, with white, brown, flesh-coloured, red, purple, violet, or 
variegated flowers, but never yellow; single or double. Leaves green, purplish or variegated underneath. 
All these varieties are designated under names in old Books. 
The Hepatica is a swiss species of the anemone; there are many varieties, both single and double, vary- 
ing in colour, and generally blowing in great profusion in February and March. The flower lies a year within 
the bud, complete in all its parts. The double flower last longer than the single, and are much handsomer. 
They thrive best when exposed only to the morning sun; cold does not injure them. They should be kept 
moderately moist, and may be increased by parting the roots, which should be done in March, when they 
are in flower; but not oftener than every third or fourth year. Frequent removal weakens, and sometimes 
destroys them. 
Culture. Hepaticas are great favourites for the flower-border, both as being evergreen in their foliage, 
and for their abundant early blossoms and great variety of colours and shades. A light loam or peat soil 
suits them best; and they are easily increased by dividing the plants at the root, in spring. When gardeners 
see its pretty flowers put forth, they say “the earth is in love, we may sow with confidence.” 
A remarkable instance is recorded of change of colour in these flowers. Some roots of the Double 
Blue Hepatica being sent from a garden in Tothill-fields to another at Henley upon Thames, when they came 
to blossom produced white flowers, owing to the difference of the soil: but it is yet more curious, that being 
returned to their former station, they resumed their original blue colour. 
* From facts we infer that Plants have been created on the system of having a living principle within 
them, capable of producing various results. This principle is not their material organization, because this, 
when they die, like the animal body on a sudden death, subsists in all its completeness at that moment, and 
yet it can no longer perform any of the functions of its life. It is also something different from heat, light, 
and electricity, which can act upon its frame, while it abides there, because neither of these aerial fluids can 
supply its place or do its offices after its departure. It is distinguished from its own, and from all inorganic 
matter, by its peculiar power, which life possesses in both plants and animals, of counteracting the laws of 
chemical affinity while it is in the organic frame, altho these begin to operate irresistibly as soon as it 
has retired. Humboldt remarked this law, by which no vegetable suffers putrefaction or decomposition in 
any part until its living principle has retired from it: then a leaf changes, and a flower decays, and a branch 
withers, but not till life has left that part. 
Vegetable life resembles nothing known in nature but animal life, and with this it has a striking analogy. 
Many of their functional operations we have noticed to be alike; and these, in both, require the presence 
and co-operation of their living principle, and cease in both when that is withdrawn. 
Its presence and activity first appear in the germination of the seed or bud, as they do in the animal 
egg. In plants, germination seems to have a specific and regular term of germination in each particular 
* Turner’s Sacred History. 
