Page:Favourite flowers of garden and greenhouse-Vol 1.djvu/19

ANEMONES Natural Order IUnunculace^;. Genus A% Anemone (Greek, aneinox, the wind). Perennial herbs with leaves all radical, lobed or divided. Flowers mostly solitary, on scapes provh let I with an involucre of three-} • ■!-. Sepals, petal-like, coloured blue, purple, red, yellow, white (rarely yellow), varying from four to twenty. Petals absent, but the outer row of the numerous stamens are sometimes partially developed into petals. The fruit is a head of achenes, sometimes with bearded styles. There are about seventy species, distri- buted over the cold and temperate regions, chiefly of the N. Hemisphere. Anemones have had their place in English "aniens for History. ,, , , , r . & . . ® , . three hundred years, tor -1. a-ed troin the Levant in 1596. A. hortensis followed from South Europe in the ensuing year. For a considerable portion of this long period these species have enjoyed great popularity, but of late years the more recently intro- dueei 1 I 1 8 14 1 A . japonica has been in greater favour. Still, the old Poppy Anemones and Garden Anemones, as A. coronaria and A. hortensis are respectively called, have many admirers, and are likely always to keep a place in herbaceous gardens. Anemones contribute largely to the beauty of our gardens from early spring, when the Hepaticas are in bloom, to late in the autumn, when A. japonica and its varieties are at their best. Much has been done to improve and vary the most popular of the species, particularly by the French and Dutch gardeners, especially among the Hepaticas, the Japanese, the Poppy and the Star Anemones. Anemone coronaria (garland). The Poppy Anemone, ith Europe. Tuberous rooted, 18 inches high, with ter- nate leaves, the segments minutely divided. Flowers with great range of colour variation, from white through pink, rose, scarlet, purple to blue, as well as variegated colours. Sepals, six, oval, in contact. The exc< ■> ■- 1 i ogly numerous florists' varieties are all beautiful. Flowers, March to May. A. hortensis (garden). Star Anemone. South Europe. Similar to coronaria, but the leaves are tougher and the segments not so finely divided as in that species ; the sepals are more spreading, and there is a distinct " eye " of a second colour in the centre of the flower. Certain well-defined forms, such as shihtta and Puvonhm, are regarded by some botanists as distinct species, by others as mere varieties. A well-known variety is /«///< as, the Scarlet Anemone, with brilliant vermilion sepals, which are rendered all the more dazzling by contrast with the mass of