NOVEMBER. 5 



drawn, and the size and abundance of these open conduits 

 explains how a plant with such a comparatively slender 

 stem can grow to so great a length as to produce its 

 flowers on the top of the foliage of a tree at a distance 

 often of a hundred feet from the ground. 



There is another clematis common about Dunedin which 

 is worth looking at and contrasting with its more showy 

 relative. Tt is abundant in many parts of the Town Belt, 

 and is easily recognised by its bunches of small greenish- 

 yellow flowers, which are rather Silky in texture. The 

 individual blossoms are only from one -half to three- 

 quarters of an inch in diameter, and the staminate forms 

 have only from twenty to thirty stamens in each. But 

 they differ markedly from the larger form in being 

 fragrant. Many sweet-scented flowers become disagree- 

 able when kept for a time ; for instance, hawthorn is very 

 pleasant when the blossoms first open, but afterwards it 

 acquires a rather fishy smell. Something like this must 

 have happened to the specimens of this species which were 

 examined by M. Raoul, who originally described it, for he 

 called it Clematis foetida, a sad misnomer for so fragrant a 

 flower. If you watch the plants on a bright calm and 

 warm day, such as this is, you will observe many bees and 

 flies on the flowers, busy not only eating or gathering 

 pollen but also sipping the nectar from the bases of the 

 stamens and carpels. 



A fourth species of clematis, of very peculiar type, 

 occurs somewhat rarely on Whare Flat, on the farther 

 slopes of Flagstaff Hill. It is appropriately named 

 Clematis afoliata, for it has no leaves in its adult state. 

 The stems are thin and bare, so that the plant appears 

 as a dead specimen ; but the young branches have a 

 few small trifoliolate leaves, and it bears flowers of a 

 dull purplish colour which are 'very fragrant. The 

 individual flowers are not much more than half an inch 

 across, so that the whole plant is very inconspicuous 

 and easily passed by. 



