Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 79 



shrubby vine with weak, woody stems. Among its relatives are the 

 lovely little Anemones or wind flowers, growing in mountains among 

 the Redwoods; and the Meadow Rues, graceful and delicate herbs, 

 also growing in mountains, with leaves resembling Maiden Hair 

 Fern ; the Mouse Tail, frequent in alkaline soils of the great interior 

 valley, and elsewhere ; many varieties of buttercups, common every- 

 where ; the showy Columbines and Larkspurs, familiar to all ; the 

 Wild Peony, the Monk's Hood, the Bane Berry, the Marsh Marigold, 

 Bug Bane, and others. 



Like numerous other members of its family, the acrid juice of 

 the stems of Clematis have no favor with stock. This is one of 

 nature's methods of protecting certain delicate plants from animals 

 by making them unpalatable. This same juice found favor with the 

 Spanish-Californians, who used it to make a wash for dressing 

 wounds, such as barbed-wire cuts on animals. They called Clematis 

 lignsticifolia by name of Yerba de Chivato. This seems to be in 

 contradiction of the belief of the plant's virtues in Europe, where 

 the name "Beggar's Vine" was applied to it, because mendicants used 

 it to rub into cuts and sores to irritate and keep them practically 

 incurable in order that they might impose upon the charitably 

 inclined. 



There are a hundred or more varieties of Clematis scattered 

 over the northern hemisphere. California has at least four of these 

 species. The Iigiisticifolia is the most widely distributed, and in 

 some parts of the State it has a local name of "pepper-vine," where 

 its leaves and stems are chewed as a remedy for sore throat. 



The more showy variety of Clematis, but somewhat less com- 

 monly distributed, is C. lasiantha, not easily distinguished by the 

 amateur from the preceding variety, for both vines have much beauty 

 both in flower and in seed. A local name for C. lasiantha, in some 

 localities, is Pipe Stem. The C. paiiciflora, frecmently called the 

 rope vine, seems to be peculiar to Southern California, where it 

 climbs trees and clambers over the scenery in true Clematis fashion. 

 In an annotated list of the wild flowers of California, prepared by 

 Dr. P. B. Kennedy, of the University of California, in connection 

 with our third annual State wild flower exhibit, held at the Fairmont 

 Hotel in San Francisco in 1917, four varieties of Clematis are listed, 

 but the distribution of the remaining variety, C. verticillaris, is not 

 given. The first three varieties, I am pleasantly acquainted with, 

 but have no information at present regarding the fourth named 

 variety. 



Indian women were partial to the trailing Clematis vines and 

 twined its flowers in their black hair and wreathed it about them as 

 they chanted weird songs in their wild dances. In the ancient 

 language of flowers, Clematis means mental beauty. 



'In all places, then, and in all seasons, 



Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings; 

 Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons, 



How akin they are to human things." LONGFELLOW. 



