ANEMONE  , or

WIND-FLOWER (from the Gr. avepos, wind), a genus of the buttercup order (Ranunculaceae), containing about ninety species in the north and south temperate zones . Anemone nemorosa, wood anemone, and A . Pulsatilla, Pasque-flower, occur in Britain; the latter is found on chalk downs.and limestone pastures in some of the more southern and eastern counties . The plants are perennial herbs with an underground rootstock, and radical, more or less deeply cut, leaves . The elongated flower stem bears one or several, white, red, blue or rarely yellow, flowers; there is an involucre of three leaflets below each flower . The fruits often bear long hairy styles which aid their distribution by the wind . Many of the species are favourite garden plants; among the best known is Anemone coronaria, often called the poppy anemone, a tuberous-rooted plant, with parsley-like divided leaves, and large showy poppy-like blossoms on stalks of from 6 to 9 in. high; the flowers are of various colours, but the principal are scarlet, crimson, blue, purple and white . There are also double-flowered varieties, in which the stamens in the centre are replaced by a tuft of narrow petals . It is an old garden favourite, and of the double forms there are named varieties . They grow best in a loamy soil, enriched with well-rotted manure, which should be dug in below the tubers . These may be planted in October, and for succession in January, the autumn-planted ones being protected by a covering of leaves or short stable litter . They will flower in May and June, and when the leaves have ripened should be taken up into a dry room till planting time .

They are easily raised from the

seed, and a bed of the single varieties is a valuable addition to a flower-garden, as it affords, in a warm situation, an abundance of handsome and often brilliant spring flowers, almost as early as the snowdrop or crocus . The genus contains many other lively spring-blooming plants, of which A. hortensis and A. fulgens have less divided leaves and splendid rosy-purple or scarlet flowers; they require similar treatment . Another set is represented by A . Pulsatilla, the Pasque-flower, whose violet blossoms have the outer surface hairy; these prefer a calcareous soil . The splendid A. japonica, and its white variety called Honorine Joubert, the latter especially, are amongst the finest of autumn-blooming hardy perennials; they grow well in light soil, and reach 22 to 3 ft. in height, blooming continually for several weeks . A group of dwarf species, represented by the native British A. nemorosa and A. apennina, are amongst the most beautiful of spring flowers for planting in woods and shady places . The genus Hepatica is now generally included in anemone as a subgenus . The plants are known in gardens as hepaticas, and are varieties of the common South European A . Hepatica; they are charming spring-flowering plants with usually blue flowers .