MAETYNIA FRAGRANS. 39 



absent in all the species, but the calyx is so highly developed, that the flowers of 

 most are as specious as in those genera possessing both an outer and inner floral 

 envelope. This absence of petals is not confined to the present genus, it occurs also 

 in Anemone, Caltha, and some of the Ranunculuses ; and in Thalictrum, or Meadow- 

 Rue, some species of which are often seen in shrubberies, both calyx and corolla are 

 wanting, wbich does not however prevent the numerous yellowish stamens from 

 making a showy appearance. 



The long feathery awns, by which the ripe seed-vessels are terminated, is another 

 prominent characteristic of this genus. They are of considerable length in our 

 subject, ccerulea, but are more developed in the native species, C. ritalla, or 

 Travellers' Joy, so common in the hedges of the chalky district, though it is by no 

 means confined to those localities. These downy prolongations, without doubt, aid 

 in effecting the dispersion of the fruit, as in the case of the pappus of composite 

 plants. 



The acrid, caustic properties of many of the species of Ranunculus is well known, 

 and they are shared, to a considerable extent, by several of the Clematis family, 

 particularly by flammula, and erecta, the bruised leaves of which are said to have 

 been used by beggars for forming artificial ulcers. 



The generic designation, Clematis, is derived from Iclema a twig, or tendril, in 

 allusion to the climbing habit of most of the species. 



MARTYNIA FRAG HANS. 



Sweet-scented Martynia. 

 Linneun Class — Didynamia. Order — Angiosperma. Natural Order — Bignoniace.t?. 



This very handsome annual, although no longer a novelty, is not, we suspect, 

 cultivated so much as it ought to be. Its large purple crimson flowers are produced 

 so freely in the later summer months, and, if we except the first stage of its growth, 

 so little trouble is involved in its management, that wc are surprised that it is not 

 more generally seen. 



The one difficulty to which we allude arises from the thickness of the integument 

 of the seed, which enables it (o set at defiance, for a considerable period, those 

 influences under which mosl other germs speedily unfold themselves. We have 



