THALAMIFLOR.E 69 



Traveller's Joy {Clematis Vitalha). 



One irresistibly connects the Traveller's Joy or 

 Old Man's Beard with the chalk downs, where it 

 grows in tangled masses, forming arbours, fit shelter 

 for bird, beast, or man. 



As a matter of fact, it is only native on such 

 soils as that of the chalk or Oolite, which are 

 calcareous. 



Common in the south of England, it does not 

 grow north of Nottingham in a wild state. The 

 Traveller's Joy is absent (as a native) from Ireland, 

 and is not native in Scotland. 



The sort of habitat it adopts is chalk downs, where 

 there are many bushes and shrubs, such as White 

 Beam, Wayfaring Tree, the Yew, and the Box. 

 Here, too, are to be found many other lovely wild 

 flowers, such as Orchids, that frequent a chalky soil. 

 Elsewhere, Traveller's Joy may be found in thickets 

 and hedge-rows, where there is some support for its 

 weak and climbing stem. 



This is one of its chief characteristics, for it is a 

 climbing shrub, and cannot grow erect without the 

 assistance of a sturdier plant. 



Darwin showed that the leaf-stalks are sensitive to 

 the slightest touch. He says: " I have found them 

 embracing thin withered blades of grass, the soft 

 young leaves of a maple, and the flower-peduncles of 

 the quaking grass or Briza." 



