112 THE WILD CLEMATIS. 



where, generally speaking, no sufficient reasons for 

 such variety of forms and texture is obvious, so it 

 is fitting that insects should be furnished with a 

 variety of powers and means to accomplish their 

 requirements, having wants more urgent, their nests 

 being at times to be so constructed as to resist the 

 influence of seasons, to contain the young for much 

 longer periods, even occasionally to furnish a supply 

 of food, or be a storehouse to afford it when wanted 

 by the infant brood. 



The wild clematis, or traveller's-joy (clematis 

 vitalba), thrives greatly in some of the dry stony 

 parts of our parish, insinuating its roots into the 

 clefts and passages of our limestone rocks, where 

 those of many other plants could not find admis- 

 sion or support; and forms in our hedgerows a 

 heavy shapeless mass of runners and branches, 

 encumbering and overpowering its neighbours ; 

 many of which it often destroys ; and we see the 

 clematis clinging round a few stinted, half-vege- 

 tating thorns, constituting the only fence, miserable 

 as it is. The runners or branches are very strong 

 and flexile, and are much used by our peasantry 

 as a binding for hedge faggots. The tubes, lymph 

 ducts, and air vessels of this plant (PI. 3. Fig. 2.) 

 appear in a common magnifier beautifully arranged, 

 being large, and admitting the air freely to circulate 

 through them. Our" village boys avail themselves of 

 this circumstance, cut off a long joint from a dry 



