RANUNCULACE^ 47 



Distribution. Carpathians ; Eastern, Central and Western Alps ; 

 rare in Switzerland (Grisons, Bernese Oberland, etc.) ; Tran- 

 sylvania, Northern Russia, Lapland, Northern Asia, and North 

 America. 



Clematis Vitalba L. Traveller's Joy, Old Man's Beard. 



A taller climber than the last, its woody stems being sometimes 

 as thick as the wrist and several yards'injiength, whilst the young 

 shoots spread greatly over shrubs and trees, to which they cling 

 by their twisted petioles. Leaves pinnate, usually with 5-stalked 

 segments. Flowers greenish white, in loose panicles at the ends 

 of short branches. Carpels with long, feathery awns, which give the 

 plant the name of Old Man's Beard. 



Hedges, thickets and open woods, especially on limestone. 

 Occasionally ascending to the sub-alpine zone in Switzerland. 

 July and August. 



Distribution. Central and Southern Europe ; France, England, 

 Caucasus. 



In France the long stems are used in basket-work, the leaves 

 given to beasts as fodder, and the young shoots are occasionally 

 eaten by the. peasants. 



THALICTRUM L 



Herbs with a short perennial rootstock and much-divided leaf- 

 stalks, bearing distinct segments or leaflets. Sepals 4 or 5, small, 

 coloured and petal-like, but no real petals. Stamens numerous, 

 with long anthers projecting beyond the calyx. Carpels several, 

 i-seeded, furrowed. Flowers sometimes polygamous. A genus of 

 about 70 species diffused over the northern hemisphere ; variable 

 and difficult to characterise. 



Thalictrum aquilegifolium L. (Plate III.) 



Stem sometimes a yard high, robust, glabrous, finely furrowed. 

 Leaves roundly triangular, 2-4 times pinnate, with membranous 

 stipellse at the branches of the leaf-stalk, light green above, bluish 

 green below ; auricles of leaf-sheaths blunt ; leaflets roundish, 

 obovate or wedge-shaped, often oblique or cordate at the base, 

 obtuse, crenate, 3-lobed or undivided. Flowers erect, in dense 

 terminal cymes. Stamens erect. Carpels 3-edged, winged, stalked, 

 pendent. Sepals and stamens in various shades of lilac, and some- 

 times nearly white ; anthers yellowish. 



Rich upland meadows of the lower Alps, descending far into the 

 plains, in meadows or margins of woods, etc. ; often in stony places 

 and ravines with Rhododendron, and ascending to 6000 feet. 

 May to August. 



Distribution. Carpathians ; Eastern, Central and Western Alps ; 



