1881 . ] 
NEW HELLEBORES. 
49 
NEW HELLEBORES. 
[Plate 
# NE of tlie most interesting families of 
liardy spring-flowering plants is that 
of the Hellebores, Helleborus of botan¬ 
ists, of which we now give a plate of some 
fine new varieties which have bloomed in Mr. 
Barr’s inimitable collection of these plants— 
which he calls Lenten roses, since they are 
generally in fall blossom during the season of 
Lent. Coming in with the new year, when H. 
niger , the Christmas rose, is in full beauty, the 
different forms of this early-blooming genus 
afford a succession of flowers up to Easter, and 
though somewhat dull in colour, the whites 
and purples and rosy tints are really effective 
and attractive, especially where the plants are 
allowed to grow on into well-established tufts. 
They also do well under pot culture. 
; Fig. 1. Peter Rudolph Barr is the finest of 
a batch of seedling plants sent to Mr. Barr by 
M. Leichtlin. It belongs to the orientalis sec¬ 
tion, and to the group which specially repre¬ 
sents orientalis itself, namely, a set in which 
the sepals are smoothly imbricated and moder¬ 
ately expanded. The flowers are very large, 
the sepals roundish-ovate, much overlapping, 
of a deep plum-purple, with a glaucous bloom 
outside, and thickly dotted with darker spots 
over the whole inner surface, the spots dis¬ 
tributed in close-set rows, and sometimes 
coalescing into short lines, as occurs in some 
of the Tydaeas. The petals are green. It is 
one of the handsomest of the Hellebores. 
Fig. 2. Punctatissimus. —This belongs to 
the same group as the last, and approaches it 
in general character ; but the flowers are not 
quite so finely shaped, nor the colour so deep 
and clear. The flowers are large, with broad, 
ovate, rather pointed sepals, which are of a 
pinkish or lilac-tinted purple, stained here and 
there with green on the inside. They are also, 
especially the outer ones, thickly spotted with 
darker purple spots, not quite so numerous or 
so regularly disposed as in P. R. Barr. The 
petals are green. It is a fine showy variety, 
from the same source as the last. 
Fig. 3. Rubidus. —Like the last, a seedling 
of M. Leitchlin’s, and a form of the orientalis 
group, very distinct in character, and desirable 
for general cultivation. The flowers are of 
medium size, the sepals ovate acute, moderately 
No. 40. IMPERIAL SERIES. 
535.] 
imbricated, expanded, of a reddish plum-colour, 
rather paler inside, and there spotted with 
purple in an irregular manner on some or all 
of the sepals. The petals are of a bright 
reddish-brown, in a single row, and afford the 
only instance known to us in which the petals 
are not more or less green. 
Fig. 4. Thomas S. Ware. —This is a fine 
variety of the orientalis group, raised by Mr. 
T. S. Ware, of Tottenham, and named after 
him. It has large expanded flowers, the sepals 
of which are broadly ovate, roundish at the 
top, nicely imbricated, not spotted, but deeply 
stained throughout of a purplish-rosy tint, 
more rosy than purple. It is a vigorous- 
growing, free-blooming variety, of very orna¬ 
mental character. 
Fig. 5. Commerzienrath Benary. —This is 
one of the seedlings raised and distributed by 
Mr. Heinemann, and is probably the best of 
the forms of the guttatus group. It is a very 
charming plant, of dwarfish habit, with green 
stems, and medium-sized, neatly-cupped flowers; 
the oblong ovate sepals are nicely imbri¬ 
cated, white, flushed with green in the outer, 
sepals, prettily and freely spotted over the 
greater portion of the inner surface with dark 
crimson, the outermost sepal being less 
thickly spotted than the rest. It is a very 
pretty and desirable plant, having a general 
resemblance to guttatus, but very much 
superior to it in the purity of the ground¬ 
colour and the prominence of the spotting. 
The petals are green. 
In the accompanying plate, Mr. Fitch has 
given as good a representation of the several 
varieties as the space at his command would 
permit. The thick, spotted stem is that of 
P. R. Barr, and even that represents but a small 
portion of the upper part of the flowering stem ; 
with the exception of Fig. 5, which is dwarfer, 
the other kinds are equally vigorous, so that 
only a single bloom of each could be shown. 
It will be seen from these figures that it is very 
usual for the outermost sepal to be more 
flushed with green than those which occupy an 
inner position. It may also be well to explain 
to non-botanical readers that the showy- 
coloured parts in these flowers represent the 
calyx, and hence these parts are called sepals ; 
while the petals are but little developed, and 
consist of the small tubular bodies, green in 
most cases, but red in Fig. 4, which form a 
ring at the exterior base of the stamens.— 
T. Moore. 
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