RANUNCULACEAE 75 



without stipules, and regular or irregular flowers with 3 to 

 15 sepals and with or without as many petals. There usually 

 are many stamens, and the numerous carpels are distinct and 

 1- to 2-celled. The fruit may be an achene, a follicle or a 

 berry. 



This very large family, which includes the crowfoots and 

 buttercups, contains nearly 1,200 species which are widely dis- 

 tributed in temperate and cool regions on both sides of the 

 equator and occur even at high altitudes in the tropics. Al- 

 though the family is represented in Illinois by many common 

 and well-known herbs, only the following genus is woody. 



CLEMATIS Linnaeus 

 Virgin's-Bower Clematis 



The virgin's-bowers are climbing vines with opposite, pin- 

 nately compound leaves, the leaflets of which may be entire or 

 toothed, and short cymes of perfect or dioecious flowers that 

 lack petals. The small sepals are white and resemble petals. 

 There are many stamens and several to many pistils, each of 

 which develops into a 1 -seeded achene, on w^hich the elongated 

 style remains as a silky or plumose tail. 



Although there are more than 200 species in this genus, widely 

 distributed in temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, only 

 the following occurs as a woody vine in Illinois. 



CLEMATIS VIRGINIANA Linnaeus 

 Virginia Virgin's-Bower Traveler's-Joy Love Vine 



The Virginia Virgin's-Bower, fig. 14, is a climbing vine with 

 more or less woody stems as much as 18 or 20 feet long, 

 which bear opposite, compound leaves, white flowers in axillary, 

 leafy panicles, and plumose heads of seeds. The leaves are 

 either ternately compound, with 3 leaflets, or, rarely, pinnately 

 compound, with 5 leaflets, which are ovate, 2 to 4 inches long, 

 acuminate at the apex, and rounded to subcordate at the base. 

 The margins are coarsely toothed, and both surfaces are gla- 

 brous to nearly so. The dull-white flowers, which are dioecious 

 and about 1 inch in diameter, are borne in few-flowered axillary, 

 leafy panicles. The sepals are obovate to spatulate, and petals 

 are lacking. Each ovary develops into a hairy achene tipped with 



