260 Blue to Purple Flowers 



below them on the stalk grows a circle of very hairy leaflets. 

 Inside the floral cup are numerous yellow stamens clustered 

 close together round the green carpels. 



As time passes the stalks elongate, the purple flowers fall 

 off, and the seeds are formed. Then the heads present a 

 lovely plumose appearance, for to each seed is attached 

 a long silky tail, the whole forming a pretty feathery tuft. 



PURPLE CLEMATIS 



Clematis columbiana. Crowfoot Family 



A trailing and partly climbing vine. Leaves: trifoliolate; leaflets 

 thin, ovate, acute, more or less cordate, slightly toothed or entire; 

 petioles slender. Flowers: solitary; sepals thin and translucent, 

 strongly veined, silky along the margins and the veins ; petals spatulate ; 

 styles persistent, plumose throughout. 



The large lovely flowers of the Purple Clematis are at- 

 tractive by reason of their four or five big purple-blue 

 sepals, for their petals are very small and inconspicuous, 

 surrounding the numerous yellow stamens. When in fruit 

 this plant is also interesting, as the fine feathery styles form 

 silvery heads, the long plumes of which are delicately en- 

 twined. 



Its slender leaf-stalks are the means by which the 

 Clematis climbs and clings to bushes, trees, and rocks, fes- 

 tooning with graceful garlands everything that comes in its 

 way and delighting the traveller's eye with its wide-spread, 

 semi-transparent, prominently veined flowers. The leaves 

 are formed of three small, deeply veined leaflets, which 

 grow on slim, rather woody stems. 



This plant is a constant ornament to the alpine woods 

 during the summer months, for when its true flowering 

 season is past the pretty green foliage and large tufts of 

 feathery seeds still render it an object of admiration. 



