Tim - I have cut and pasted the below from the hellebore folder - please see below !!

These people find this hard to accept because they think of x sternii as usually looking like argutifolius in shape and form but having the leaf markings of lividus. In actual fact x sternii is hugely variable with some plants looking like plain argutifolius, some looking intermediate (these are the most sought after)

I saw a batch of argutifolius today in a (I hate to say it! garden centre!) and one plant stood out (I nearly bought it) because it looked exactly like argutifolius but had a pinkish stem and the leaves slightly silver-green in shade - would this be one of the intermediate plants you state that might be worth buying ? I must admit that the classification is confusing to say the very least!

regards

Richard