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HELLÉBORUS niger var. vernalis.
Vernal Black Hellebore.
Linnean Class and Order. P O L Y A N D R IA P O L Y G Y N IA .
N a tu ra lO rd e r. R A N U N C tJ L A C EÆ . Juss. gen. p . 281.
H E L L E B O R U S . Suprà fol. 109. Series 1.
H . niger, foliis pedatisectis glabris, scapo subnudo ilnifloro.
Helleborus niger. Linn. sp. p l. p . 783. Blackw. herb. t. 506. 507. Alili,
diet. no. 2. Jacq. austr. t. 201. Lam. diet. 3. p . 97. Curt. bot. mag. t. 8.
Bull. herb. t. 33. Willd. sp .p l. 2. p. 1336. B e c .fi. fra n . ed. 3. 4, p . 908.
Woodv. med. bot. 1. p . 50. t. 18.
H . grandiflorus. Salisb.prodr. p . 814. Linn. T rans.8. p .8 0 4 .
H . niger legitimus. Clus. hist. 1. p. 214. Besl. hort. eyst. t. l .f o l. I.
H . niger verus. Ger. herb. 970.
H . niger, flore roseo. Bauh. pin. 186.
H . niger, foliis angustioribus. Tourn. inst. 272.
Helleborum nigrum. Math. comm. p . 843.
Veratrum nigrum. Hod. pempt. 385.
ß. vernalis, foliorum segmentis cuneatis obtusiusculis pallidè viridibus margine
revolutis crebrius serratis: dentibus obtusiusculis mucronulatisque,
floribus majoribus.
Rather more dwarf and compact than the common variety.
Scapes from 3 to 6 inches high, stout, round, or slightly
compressed, mostly simple and one-flowered, but occasionally
forked, about the thickness of a goose quill, smooth and
glossy, marked with numerous irregular purple spots. Leaves
tripartite, and septenately digitate: segments cuneate, lanceolate,
blunt and mucronulate, coriaceous, yellowish green
above, and marked with depressed, channelled veins, 2 to 5
inches long, paler beneath; the edges revolute, serrated
from about the middle upwards, with broad, unequal, rounded,
mucronulate, approximate teeth; the lateral ones connate
; the middle one separate and distinct, with equal sides.
Footstalks short, stout, and rounded, about 2 inches long,
marked along the upper side with a shallow furrow. Bractes
2, ovate, membranous, mucronulate, or notched, wavy, pals
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