C L E 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C L E 



Arrangement contains twenty species, besides many varieties, 

 the essential character of which he thus states : Fungus 

 oblonic, upright, club-shaped; seeds emitted from every part 

 of its surface. 



Claytonia ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GBNEBIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth bivalve, 

 ovate, transverse at the base. Corolla : petals five, obcor- 

 Jate, with claws emargiiiate. Stamina : filamenta five, sub- 

 ulate, recurve, a little shorter than the corolla, each inserted 

 into the claw of each petal ; anthers oblong, incumbent. 

 Pistil . germen roundish ; style simple, the length of the 

 stamina; stigma trifid. Pericarp; capsule roundish, three- 

 celled, three-valved, elastic. Seeds : three, round. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Calix : two-valved. Corolla : five- 

 petalled. Stigma: trifid. Capsule : three-valved, one-celled, 



three-seeded. The species are, 



1. Claytonia Virginica. Leaves linear-lanceolate ; petals 

 entire. It has a small tuberous root, which sends out slender 

 stalks three inches high in the spring, having each two or 

 three succulent narrow leaves, two or three inches long, of a 

 deep green colour. Four or five flowers are produced at the 

 top of the stalk in a loose bunch ; petals spreading, white, 

 spotted with red on their inside. The flowers appear in 

 April, and the seeds ripen in June. Found in Virginia. This 

 and the next species are propagated by seeds, and also from 

 offsets sent out from the roots : the seeds should be sown upon 

 a shady border of light earth, or in pots filled with the like 

 mould, soon after they are ripe ; for if they be kept out of the 

 ground till spring, the plants will not come up till the next 

 year ; whereas those which are sown early in the autumn will 

 grow the following spring ; so that a whole year is gained : 

 when the plants appear, they will require no other care but to 

 keep them clean from weeds ; and in the autumn, if some old 

 tanner's bark be spread over the surface of the ground, it will 

 secure the roots from being injured by frost ; but in mild 

 winters they will not require protection. The best time to 

 transplant the roots is about Michaelmas. 



2. Claytonia Sibirica. Leaves ovate. This is a low plant, 

 seldom rising more than two or three inches high ; flowers 

 red, root tuberous. Native of Siberia. 



3. Claytonia Perfoliata. Leaves nerveless, root ones rhomb- 

 egg-shaped, stem ones somewhat connate ; flowers umbel- 

 verticillate ; petals entire. Root annual ; stem four or five 

 inches high ; flowers white. Native of North America. 



Cleavers, or Clivers. See Gallium Aparine. 



Clematis ; a genus of the class Polyandria, order Poly- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: none. Corolla: 

 petals four, oblong, lax. Stamina: filamenta very many, 

 subulate, shorter than the corolla : anthera? growing to the 

 side of the filamenta. Pistil : germinavery many, roundish, 

 compressed, ending in subulate styles, longer than the sta- 

 mina ; stigmas simple. Pericarp : none ; receptacle headed, 

 small ; seeds very many, roundish, compressed, furnished 

 with the style, in various forms. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calii. none. Petals: four, sometimes five, or even six 

 Seeds : having a tail. The Virgin's Bowers are chiefly climb- 

 ing shrubs, though some of them are erect ; leaves opposite, 

 simple, ternate, or unequally pinnate ; flowers axillary, but 

 more frequently terminating ; solitary, but more frequently 

 in corymbs ; in some species dioecous, and in others furnished 

 with a turbinate bifid calicle, removed a little from the pe- 

 tals. The species are, 



1. Clematis Cirrhosa ; Evergreen Virgins Bower. Leaves 

 simple ; stem climbing by opposite tendrils ; peduncles one- 

 flowered, lateral. This has a climbing stalk, rising to the 

 height of eight or ten feet, sending out branches from every 



VOL. i, 27. 



joint, whereby it becomes a very thick bushy plant. The 

 leaves retain their verdure throughout the year : they are 

 sometimes single, sometimes double, frequently ternate, ser- 

 rate. The flowers are produced from the sides of the branches, 

 are large, and of an herbaceous colour : they appear at the 

 end of December or beginning of January. Native of Spain, 

 and Candia. Gerarde calls it Traveller's Joy of Cniidiu ; 

 Johnson, Spanish Traveller's Joy ; and Parkinson, Spanish 

 Wdd Climber. This species is valuable on account of retain- 

 ing its leaves all the year, and was formerly preserved in 

 green-houses in the winter, having been supposed too tender 

 to endure the open air in England ; but now it is generally 

 planted in the full ground, where the plants thrive much 

 better than in pots, and produce plenty of flowers, which 

 they never bore when tenderly treated. They do not suffer 

 from severe frosts, even when left uncovered. It does not 

 produce seeds in England, and therefore is propagated by 

 layers and from cuttings ; if by the former, they should be 

 planted in the beginning of October, when the shoots of the 

 same year only should be chosen for this purpose ; for the 

 older branches do not put out shoots in less than two years, 

 whereas the tender shoots will make good roots in one year; 

 these must be pegged down ; if the shoots have two inches 

 of earth over them, it will be better than a greater depth ; 

 but then a little old tanner's bark should be spread over the 

 surface of the ground, to keep out the frost, for the plants 

 generally begin flowering about Christmas, and at the same 

 time are putting out roots, which being but just formed, may 

 be injured by severe frosts : these layers will have strong roots 

 by the following autumn, when they may be taken from the 

 old plant, and transplanted where they are designed to 

 remain. If it be propagated by cuttings, they should be 

 planted in March, in pots filled with good kitchea-garden 

 earth, and plunged into a very moderate hot-bed, observing 

 to shade them from the sun in the day-time, and to water 

 them gently twice or thrice a week, and in less than two 

 months they will have taken root, and should be gradually 

 inured to the open air. In the following summer they 

 may be placed in any part of the garden till Michaelmas, 

 and then they should be turned out of the pots and planted 

 in the full ground, either where they are designed to remain, 

 orinto the nursery-bed, to grow a year longer, to get strength 

 before they are placed out for good. 



2. Clematis Viticella ; Purple Virgin's Bower. Leaves com- 

 pound and twice compound ; leaflets ovate, sublobed, quite 

 entire. Root perennial ; stems very slender and weak, having 

 many joints, whence come out side-branches which are again 

 divided into smaller ; leaflets from nine to fifteen, ovate acute, 

 smooth, entire. If these be supported, they will rise to the 

 height of eight or ten feet. The petals are of a dark worn- 

 out purple or blue, or bright purple or red. It grows natu- 

 rally in the woods and hedges of Spain and Italy. Gerarde 

 calls it " blue or red-flowering Ladies-Bower," from its apt- 

 ness to make bowers or harbours in gardens. There are four 

 varieties cultivated in the nurseries : 1. the single blue : 

 2. single purple ; 3. single red ; 4. double purple. They flower 

 in June and July, but the seeds seldom ripen in England ; 

 the last continues to the end of August. All the varieties of 

 Purple Virgin's Bower are propagated by laying down their 

 branches ; for although the single flowers sometimes produce 

 seeds in England, yet as these seeds when sown, generally 

 remain a whole year in the ground before they vegetate, the 

 other, being the more expeditious method of increasing these 

 plants is generally preferred : in order to succeed, these 

 layers should be laid down at different seasons from the 

 former sort ; for when they are laid in the autumn, their 

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