ERANTHIS 
109 
Perennial herb with a foetid odour. Rhizome stout, oblique. Shoot up to 5 — 6 dm. high. 
Ground- heaves With long petioles ; petioles some- 
what dilated at the base ; laminae pedate, almost 
coriaceous ; lobes narrowly elliptical, serrate, 
acute. Pedicel compressed, bent over in flower, 
straightening in fruit. Flowers numerous, 
drooping, about 2 — 3 in diameter; January to 
May. Sepals usually 5, greenish, purplish at 
the apex, persistent. Petals or nectar-leaves 
5 — 10, usually 6 — 7, shorter than the stamens. 
Stamens about 30 — 55. Follicles 2 — 5, usually 
3, slightly connate at the base, transversely 
wrinkled, on a short common gynophore. 
An interesting paper on “The Seed-Mass and Dis- 
persal of Helleborus foetidus Linn.” by Dymes (in Journ. 
Linn. Soc. — Bot., xliii, 433 et seq. (1916)), has recently 
been published. 
Woods and scrub, in lowland districts, 
on calcareous soil in south-eastern England 
and the lower Severn basin, though often a 
doubtful native. Not indigenous in Scotland 
or Ireland, and probably not so in Wales. 
Germany, Holland(?indigenous), Belgium, 
France, central Europe, southern Europe. 
Genus 4. # Eranthis 
Eranthis Salisbury in Trans. Linn. Soc. viii, 303 (1807); Prantl in Pflanzenfam. iii, pt. 2, 56 et 57 (1891); 
nomen conservatum ; Helleborus L. loc. cit., pro min. parte ; \Cammarum Hill Brit. Herbal 47 (1756) ; Helleboro'ides 
Adanson Fam. PI. ii, 458 (1763)]. 
Allied to Helleborus. Leaves fewer, peltate. Inflorescence solitary. Bracts 3, spiral but with 
very short internodes, involucroid. Peduncles hollow. Flowers sessile. Sepals yellow or rarely green, 
5 — 8, usually 6, deciduous, very sensitive to heat. Staminodes or petals or nectar-leaves yellow, 
5 — 9, usually 6, more markedly 2 -lipped, outer lip larger than the inner one. Stamens 00 but 
fewer. Carpels 3 — 11, usually 6, with a gynophore. Seeds i-seriate, testa punctate. 
About 7 species ; Mediterranean region to central Asia. Only British species : — *F. hiemalis. 
I. *ERANTHIS HIEMALIS. Winter Aconite. Plate 107 
Eranthis hiemalis Salisbury loc. cit. 304; Syme Eng. Bot. i, 55 (1863); Rouy et Foucaud FI. France 
i, 1 19 (1893); Helleborus hiemalis L. Sp. PI. 557 (1753)!. 
leones: — Bot. Mag. t. 3, as Helleborus hiemalis ; FI. Dan. t. 1391, as H. hiemalis ; Reichenbach Icon, iv, 
t. 101, fig. 4714; Syme Eng. Bot. i, t. 43. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate ioj. (a, b ) Whole plants, (c) Fruiting branch. Hort. (E. W. H.) 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 308 ; Caruel, 50 ; v. Heurck et Martinis, vii, 302 ; Reichenbach, 2273 ; Thielens et Devos, 
iv, 303- 
Perennial, resting from late May to about January. Shoot glabrous, 1 — 2 dm. high. Laminae 
peltate, suborbicular, palmatisect. Bracts with oblong, obtuse, apiculate segments. Flowers about 
2 ’5 cm. in diameter; late December to early March. Sepals yellow. Stamens yellow, about 30 on 
the average. Stigma yellowish. Follicles about r4— 17 cm. long including the beak (i.e., the 
persistent style). Seeds about 8, early May. 
More or less naturalised in damp copses in the lowlands of England. 
Southern Switzerland and Austria, southern Europe from France eastwards to the Balkans; naturalised in 
Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, northern and central France, northern Spain, and North America. 
