CROWFOOT FAMILY 



The Clematis stem does not twine, it puts forth 

 no tendrils; the leaf-petioles do the work, they coil 

 around outlying branches and twigs, and in this way 

 the stem rises little by little until, having reached the 

 top it spreads out its clusters of white stars to the 

 sunlight and rejoices in its success. 



The flowers are of two kinds, pistillate and staminate, 

 borne usually on different plants, sometimes on the 

 same. The staminate flowers have white plumy 

 stamens, those in the very centre pale yellow, while 

 the pistillate flowers have a bunch of carpels giving 

 them a green centre. Frequently the pistillate flowers 

 have stamens as well, but these are often sterile, made 

 of filaments only, no anthers. 



It is interesting to watch the fruiting of a Clematis 

 vine. As the flowers are both sterile and fertile, the 

 sterile blossoms fall and the blooming panicle dries 

 up and disappears. But the fertile panicle as soon as 

 the white petals fall begins to show what it can and 

 what it means to do. The bunch of pistils in the 

 centre of each flower becomes a ball, and the style of 

 each little carpel begins to lengthen and in time trans- 

 forms itself into a long hairy plume, green at first, 

 but as autumn advances it becomes silvery white; 

 so that the plant at length covers itself with feathery 

 masses more noticeable and more fascinating than 

 were the flowers. These one-seeded carpels do not 

 open, but trusting this one wing to the wind, they sail 

 forth whither fate impels. 



A plant very like our Clematis grows in England 

 and there has obtained the name of Virgin's Bower 

 and Traveller's Joy, names sometimes transferred to 

 our own species. Many of the old common folk- 



64 



