THE ALPINE CLEMATIS 229 



British flora contains quite a fair percentage of species 

 which climb by some means or other, while in the 

 forests of the tropics the number is very much greater. 

 We have already noticed that the climbing Honey- 

 suckles do not occur in the Alps. In the Alpine zone 

 there are also no Convolvuli, no Ivies, and no Traveller's 

 Joy. Neither are any Vetches nor Peas, with 

 modified climbing leaves or tendrils, indigenous to 

 this zone. Of the hook-climbers — plants which 

 scramble up over other plants by means of recurved 

 hooks — certain species of Bramble {Riihus) and 

 Bedstraw {Galium) are frequent in Alpine Switzerland, 

 as in Britain. There remains only one other climbing 

 plant, the Atragene or Alpine Clematis. 



The Atragene or Alpine Clematis. 



The Alpine Clematis or Atragene [Clematis alpina, 

 Miller, also known as Atrage7ie alpinay Linn., natural 

 order Ranunculacece, the Buttercup family) (Plate 

 XLIII.) is a near relative of our British Traveller's 

 Joy {Clematis vitalba, Linn.), which occurs also in 

 Lowland Switzerland and ascends to nearly 3,000 

 feet. It is a woody plant, not infrequent in the 

 Alpine thickets, climbing up over other plants, 

 though not, perhaps, very common in the lower 

 portion of the Alpine zone. 



This genus is remarkal)le among the Buttercup 

 family as being the only one which has opposite leaves. 

 The Alpine Clematis climbs, not by means of tendrils, 

 but with the aid of its long, sensitive leaf-stalks, which 



