White and Greenish 



petals ; stamens and pistils numerous, of indefinite number ; 

 the staminate and pistillate flowers on separate plants ; the 

 styles feathery, and over i in. long in fruit. Stem : Climbing, 

 slightly woody. Leaves: Opposite, slender petioled, divided 

 into 3 pointed and widely toothed or lobed leaflets. 



Preferred Habitat — Climbing over woodland borders, thickets, 

 roadside shrubbery, fences, and walls ; rich, moist soil. 



Flowering Season — July — September. 



Distribution — Georgia and Kansas northward ; less common be- 

 yond the Canadian border. 



Fleecy white clusters of wild clematis, festooning woodland 

 and roadside thickets, vary so much in size and attractiveness 

 that one cannot but investigate the reason. Examination shows 

 that comparatively few of the flowers are perfect, that is, few 

 contain both stamens and pistils ; the great majority are either 

 male — the more showy ones — or female — the ones so conspicuous 

 in fruit — and, like Quakers in meeting, the sexes are divided. 

 The plant that bears staminate blossoms produces none that are 

 pistillate, and vice versa — another marvellous protection against 

 that horror of the floral race, self-fertilization, and a case of abso- 

 lute dependence on insect help to perpetuate the race. Since the 

 clematis blooms while insect life is at its height, and after most, 

 if not all, of the Ranunculaceae have withdrawn from the compe- 

 tition for trade ; moreover, since its white color, so conspicuous 

 in shady retreats, and its accessible nectar attract hosts of flies and 

 the small, short-tongued bees chiefly, that are compelled to work 

 for it by transferring pollen while they feed, it goes without. saying 

 that the vine is a winner in life's race. 



Charles Darwin, who made so many interesting studies of the 

 power of movement in various plants, devoted special attention 

 to the clematis clan, of which about one hundred species exist ; 

 but, alas ! none to our traveller's joy, that flings out the right hand 

 of good fellowship to every twig within reach, winds about the 

 sapling in brotherly embrace, drapes a festoon of flowers from 

 shrub to shrub, hooks even its sensitive leafstalks over any avail- 

 able support as it clambers and riots on its lovely way. By rub- 

 bing the footstalk of a young leaf with a twig a few times on any 

 side, Darwin found a clematis leaf would bend to that side in the 

 course of a few hours, but return to the straight again if nothing 

 remained on which to hook itself. "To show how sensitive the 

 young petioles are," he wrote, " I may mention that I just touched 

 the undersides of two with a little water color which, when dry, 

 formed an excessively thin and minute crust ; but this sufficed in 

 twenty-four hours to cause both to bend downwards." 



In early autumn, when the long, silvery, decorative plumes 

 attached to a ball of seeds form feathery, hoary masses even more 

 fascinating than the flower clusters, the name of old man's beard 



182 



