Tab. 7166. 

 CLEMATIS kStanleyi. 



Native of the Transvaal. 



Nat Orel. Banunculace^e. — Tribe Clematide^e. 

 Genus Clematis, Linn.; {Benth. et HooJc.f. Gen. PI. vol. i. p. 3.) 



Clematis Stanleyi; erecta, robusta, molliter albo-villosa, foliis ternatisectis, 

 foliolis laxis deusisve cuneato-obovatis v. -linearibus obtusis v. acutis, 

 iloribus solitariis longe et crasse pedunculitis amplis nutantibus, sepalis 

 4 ovato-rotundatis subacutis valide costatis marginibus uadulatis intus 

 et extus sericeo-villosis albis v. pallide purpureis, staminibus numero- 

 sissimis, filamentis aericeis antheras lineares longioribus, ovariis stylis 

 que sericeo-plumosis. 



C. Stanleyi, Hook. Ic. PI. t. 589; Harv. & Sond. Fl, Cap. vol. i. p. 3 ; 

 Watson in Gard. C/iron. 1890 ; pt. ii. p. 326; Garden Sc Forest, vol iii 

 p. 513. 



Few genera of plants present such remarkable divergences 

 in habit and flowers as Clematis, and the subject of the 

 present plate shows, perhaps, in this respect the greatest 

 departure from the prevalent characters of its congeners. 

 In fact it more resembles an Anemone in foliage and flower, 

 though no species of that genus has so shrubby a habit ; 

 and the North American A. patens is its nearest counter- 

 part in general appearance. Mr. Watson, indeed, informs 

 me that as grown at Kew the leaves are sometimes alter- 

 nate, a singular fact, which if confirmed, would leave 

 nothing whereby to distinguish the two genera from one 

 another but the valvate petals of Clematis, these being 

 imbricate in Anemone. 



C. Stanleyi, whilst always retaining its erect robust habit, 

 is a very variable plant as to foliage, whether in its native 

 state or in cultivation. The leaves are sometimes only a 

 few inches long, crowded and with closely packed sessile 

 leaflets not a fourth of an inch long ; in others the leaves 

 are four to six inches long, with linear segments ; in the 

 cultivated form here figured the lower leaves are a span 

 long and upwards ; deltoid, with petiolulate segments an 

 inch to an inch and a half long. The peduncles of the 

 March 1st, 1891. 



