24 



BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 



Traveller's Joy — Clematis Vitalba 

 (Plate I) 



This is an exceedingly graceful climbing plant 

 with slender stems, which often runs thickly over 

 banks and hedges in the south of England, pre- 

 ferring a chalky soil. The leaves are oval or heart- 

 shaped, and pointed. The flowers grow in small 

 clusters ; the corolla is absent ; and the calyx, 

 which has 4 or 5 sepals, is yellowish green on the 

 outside, and white within ; it is about one-third 

 of an inch in diameter. The seed-vessels are 

 adorned with long feathery awns. 



The plant is highly acrid, and in former days 

 it is said that beggars used to bind leaves over 

 scratches, and thus produce ulcers to move the 

 compassion of the charitable. 



Upwards of 20 species of insects are recorded 

 as feeding upon this shrub, some being peculiar 

 to it. Among these are several species of 

 Geometridce, or Looper Moths, the caterpillars of 

 which have only 10 legs, 6 situated on the thorax 

 and 4 near the end of the body, and therefore 



move by fixing their four hinder-legs, stretching 

 forward and fixing their six front-legs, and then 

 drawing up their hindlegs towards the others, thus 

 arching their bodies into a loop. Often, however, 

 they fix themselves by the hindlegs and stiffen 

 themselves, when they present the appearance of 

 a bare green or brown twig. 



One moth, Phibalapteryx vitalbata, has been 

 named after the plant. The caterpillar is bluish 

 green, with a yellow line on the sides, and feeds 

 on Clematis in autumn. The moth has rather 

 pointed forewings, an inch and a quarter in 

 expanse ; it is light brown, with transverse brown 

 lines, and a blackish oblique streak tapering from 

 the inner margin of the forewings to the tip. 



The following lines have been written on this 

 plant : 



The Traveller's Joy is a darling thing, 



None loveth it more than I ; 

 I've seen it in courtly gardens cling, 

 I've seen it 'mid rocks and ruins spring, 

 I know hedgerows where it's wandering, 



And I smile as I pass it by. — Twamley. 



