2 THALAMIFLOBJE. 



Roots perennial ; leaves exactly opposite. Name, from 

 the shoot of a vine, which its long branches somewhat resemble. 



1. Clematis dioica. Dioecious Traveller's joy. 



Flowers panicled dioecious, leaves ternately divided, 

 divisions ovate subcordate acuminate triply nerved en- 

 tire glabrous, pericarps oval, pedicels pubescent. 



Sloane, Hist. I. 199. t. 118. f. I. Browne, Jam. 255? De 

 Cand. Syst. I. 143 Prod. I. 4. 



HAB. Common on the lower hills, especially in limestone 

 districts. 



FL. August December. 



Fruticose, ascending to a considerable height on neighbour- 

 ing shrubs and trees : branches terete, glabrous, striated, stained 

 with purple. Leaves opposite, petioled, ternate ; leaflets in the 

 young plant connected together ; in the old, petioluled, ovate, 

 subcordate, acuminate with a bluntish apicula, 3-(or sub-5) 

 -nerved, smooth, shining above: petiole long, terete, striated, oc- 

 casionally (as also the branches) granulato-verrucose : petiolules 

 pedato-patent. Peduncles axillary, frequently longer than the 

 leaves, subdivided: pedicels pubescent. Flowers greenish- 

 white, and slightly fragrant, by abortion sub-dioecious. $ . 

 Calyx with sepals oblong, pubescent, reflexed. Stamens oc, 

 length of the sepals. $ . Pericarps about 20, oval, compressed, 

 pubescent, terminated by a long feathery awn. 



This is the only species indigenous to the Island, the CLE- 

 MATIS scandens foliis 5-nerviis, referring to this species and not 

 to C. AMERICANA as supposed by De Candolle. The long 

 slender branches of this plant arfe employed by the Negroes as 

 a substitute for cord, in tying rails, bundles of grass, &c. The 

 leaves are hot and acrid to the taste, and, when bruised into a 

 pulp, and applied to the skin, they act as a rubefacient, and even 

 vesicate^ An infusion of the bruised leaves and flowers, forms 

 a good lotion for the removal of spots and freckles from the 

 skin : and a decoction of the root in sea-water, mixed with wine, 

 is said to act as a powerful purge in hydropic cases. Barham 

 quaintly remarks, " I never could understand why it is called 

 Traveller's joy, or what joy travellers reap from it." 



II. RANUNCULUS. Crowfoot. 



Calycine sepals 5. Petals 5, rarely 10, with a 

 foveolar nectariferous squamule at the. base. Stamens 

 and ovaries co. Carpels ovate, subcompressed, ter- 

 minating in an awn scarcely longer than the seed, ar- 

 ranged in a globose or cylindrical head. 



