Page:Favourite flowers of garden and greenhouse-Vol 1.djvu/25

Rh Rh other Anemones, and the character of the involucre. In Hepatica this consists of three simple leaves near the flower, so that it resembles a calyx; but it is sufficiently remote from the flower to make it clear that the involucral leaves are not sepals. The sepals indeed are coloured and petal like, as in those other species of Ranunculaceæ we have already described. The rootstock is not so tuberous as are those of A. coronaria and A. hortensis, but more like that of A. japonica and our native A. nemorosa. The leaves are divided into lobes; they are glossy, dark-green above, reddish beneath, and persist for two seasons, so that the plant is always in leaf.

Anemone Hepatica (liver: supposed cure for liver-complaints) was introduced from Europe in 1573. It is from 4 to 6 inches high, with the leaves in three almost equal lobes, with clear cut margin- Tree i'rom in- dentations ; the leaf stalks hairy. The flowers are solitary on the hairy scape, and consist of from six to nine sepals ; the normal colour is blue or purple, paler beneath. There are numerous varieties, from white to flowered. They are all worth growing either in the rock-garden, or in the front of a sunny border. The dowers first appear in February, and A. angulosa (angled). The Large Hepatica, from Eastern Europe. Whole plant as large again as A. Hepatica; 8 to 12 inches high, with leaves divided into five-toothed lobes. Flowers, 2 inches across, with black anthers and yellow carpels, appearing in February. The cultural directions for Anemones in general apply equally to this section, but a few lines may be devoted specially to them. Both A. Hepatica and A. angulosa may be propagated should be practised with Hepaticas is to get large This can be achieved only by mot. ■divi sion in autum n, but this m for the great thii lg to aim at clumps bear ing a great m imber of flov by allov the plants to r emain undisti roots dc ) no t increase rap idly. In this method for increasing our • stock; in ti- remain 1 Uldi: sturbed, we sin ll] probably g the old ] alanl
 * s without any

trouble. Th< will smj .-nvst. to us that tl ie seed shouh have uu >ice, however, of sowing at when they may he planted