Plants -- Identification; Wild flowers -- Great Britain
Belonging to the same order (_Ranunculaceæ_) we have two species of
Hellebore--the Green Hellebore (_Helleborus viridis_) and the Stinking
Hellebore (_H. foetidus_), both found in woods on chalk or limestone
during April and May. The former, also known in parts as the Bear's-foot
(Plate I, Fig. 1), has leaves palmately lobed, consisting of
five or seven parts; and the flowers, which are more than an inch
across, have spreading green sepals, and small tubular petals which
contain nectar that is supposed to be poisonous on account of the small
dead flies that are commonly found sticking to it. The Stinking
Hellebore, or Setterwort, has evergreen, radical leaves, the lobes of
which do not radiate from a common centre; and the flowers, of which
there are many on each peduncle, have erect sepals.
The Goldilocks or Wood Ranunculus (_Ranunculus auricomus_) is a flower
very much like the Upright Meadow Buttercup (p. 211), though not
nearly so tall, being only from six to ten inches high. It grows chiefly
in thickets and copses, and flowers from April to July. Its root is
fibrous; the stem erect, slender, and branched; the radical leaves
long-stalked, round or kidney-shaped, divided into three, five, or seven
lobes; and the stem leaves few, sessile, and palmately divided to the
base into very narrow segments. The calyx is downy, consisting of
spreading, yellow sepals; and the petals are often partially or entirely
wanting. This plant is widely distributed, but is most frequent in the
centre and south of England.
[Illustration: THE GOLDILOCKS.]
The Columbine (_Aquilegia vulgaris_), also one of the _Ranunculaceæ_, so
well known as a garden flower, grows wild in the thickets and copses of
several parts, blooming from May to July. Its branched stem grows to a
height of one or two feet; and the leaves are stalked, with three broad,
stalked, three-lobed segments. The pretty, drooping flowers are usually
over an inch in diameter, of a white, blue, or purple colour, in a
loose, leafy panicle. They have five coloured, deciduous sepals; five
petals, each with a curved spur that projects below the base of the
calyx; numerous stamens; and an ovary of five carpels which ripen into
as many follicles.
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