140 RAXUNCULACEAE. 



aeutish, 6 mm. long or less; petals 4-8, white, acute; stamens 50 or fewer; fruit 

 2-3 em. in diameter. 



Fresh water swamps nnd water-holes, New Providence, Cat Island, Great 

 Exuma, Acklin'a Island and Inagua :- Cuba to Haiti and St. Croix; South Amer- 

 ica. Referred to by Ccker as V. ampla (DC.) Greene. White Watku-lily. 



Family 2. RANUNCULACEAE Juss. 



Crowfoot Family. 



Herbs, or rarely climbing shrubs, with acrid sap. Leaves alternate 

 (except in Clematis and Atragene). Stipules usually none, but tbe base 

 of the petiole often sheathing'. Pubescence, when present, composed of 

 simple hairs. Sepals 3-15, generally caducous, often petal-like, imbricate, 

 except in Clematis and Atragene. Petals about the same number (occa- 

 sionally more), or wanting. Stamens co, hypogynous, their anthers 

 innate. Carpels oo or rarely solitary, 1-celled, 1-many-ovuled. Ovules 

 anatropous. Fruit achenes, follicles or berries. Seeds with endosperm. 

 About 35 genera and 1100 species, distributed throughout the world, not 

 abundant in the tropics. 



1. CLEMATIS L. Sp. PI. 543. 1753. 



Climbing vines or perennial herbs, more or less woody. Leaves opposite, 

 slender-petioled, pinnately compound, lobed, or in some species entire. Sepals 

 4 or 5, valvate in the bud, petaloid. Petals none. Stamens co. Pistils co. 

 Achenes 1-seeded. Style long, persistent, plumose, silky or naked. [Greek 

 name for some climbing plant.] About 25 species of very wide geographic dis- 

 tribution, most abundant in temperate regions. Type species: Clematis 

 Vitalba L. 



1. Clematis bahamica (Kuntze) Britton, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 4: 117. 1905. 



Clematis dioica oahamica Kuntze, Yerh. Bot. Yer. Prov. Brand. 26: 102. 

 1895. 



Vine slender, trailing or high-climbing, the young plants sparingly and 

 loosely pubescent. Leaves trifoliolate or the uppermost simple; leaflets slender- 

 stalked, 4 cm. long or less, various in form even on the same vine, ovate to 

 oval or nearly orbicular, acute or obtuse and mucronulate at the apex, quite 

 glabrous when mature, entire, or often 3-lobed, firm in texture and strongly 

 veined on the under side ; achenes plump, only 3 mm. long, the filiform plumose 

 style 3-5 cm. long; flowers few, in small leafy-bracted panicles; pedicels loosely 

 pubescent; sepals oblong-lanceolate, about 5 mm. long, loosely pubescent, in a 

 Mariguana specimen coherent and falling away as a cap. 



Rocky thickets, pine-lands and sink-holes, Abaco, Great Bahama, Andros, Eleu- 

 thera, Cat Island, Great Exuma, and Mariguana. Endemic. Referred by Mrs. 

 Northrop to G. dioica; by Hitchcock to C. flammulastrum, and by Dolley to C. 

 Vitalba. Bahama Vibgin's-bower. 



