i8o THE CROWFOOT FAMILY. 



at their bases an involucre which is composed of a number of foliaceous leaflets 

 with long petiolules. Sepals : five to ten; petal-like ; oblong, mostly rounded at 

 their apices. Petals : none. Stamens : numerous, short. Leaves : with long 

 petioles, from the base and on the stem; ternately compound, the leaflets rounded 

 or ovate and bluntly toothed towards the apex; smooth; thin. Stem: erect- 

 four to ten inches high ; smooth ; highly coloured at maturity. Roots: a cluster 

 of small tubers. 



Almost as perishable and very like those of the wind flower are this plant's 

 blossoms, while its leaves resemble the foliage of the meadow rue. For 

 these reasons is the Greek name, meaning bound together, significant. The 

 genus is a monotypic one of eastern North America. Very early in the 

 season, often about old trees and close to the wind flower, the stem shoots 

 upward. Not until later do the basal leaves appear. 



LEATHER=FLOWER. {Plate LVII.) 



Clematis Viorna. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Crowfoot. Red disk Scentless. Tennessee^ Georgia and West Virginia May-J uly. 

 purple. to Pennsylvania and ivestward. 



Floivers : solitary; nodding. Calyx: campanulate with five, large, ovate sepals, 

 thick and woolly inside and tapering into a recurved point ; leathery. Corolla : none. 

 Ac/ienes : broadly ovoid ; flat, with long feathery, pale yellow tails. Leaves: op- 

 posite ; mostly pinnate. Leaflets : entire, lobed or trifoliate pointed at their apices, 

 glabrous. A vine climbing often ten or twelve feet high by means of the tendril 

 bearing leaves. 



Running vigorously up and down rail fences, meandering by the borders 

 of streams, intermingling itself with shrubbery and even ascending small 

 trees, this beautiful climber first weaves in and out its bell-like flowers, and 

 then spreads to the breeze rounded balls of achenes with pale yellow and 

 fleecy tails. Much of the beauty of the genus, indeed, lies in this clever de- 

 vice by which their tiny seeds may be borne, as kites with long well-balanced 

 tails, to distances far from the parent plant, and thus every year increase 

 their holdings of the soil. 



C. crispa, marsh clematis, one of the most beautiful of the genus is a 

 climber which also bears solitary and nodding flowers. They are fragrant, 

 with a silvery sheen and look something as though they had been enameled 

 with blue. About their margins the sepals are crisped like some tissue paper, 

 while inside they are lined with a dense, velvety tomentum. Until frost al- 

 most they continue to bloom. The leaves are pinnate and bear mostly tri- 

 foliate, lanceolate leaflets which are for the most part entire, although oc- 

 casionally they become lobed. Although feathery, the long persistent styles 

 are quite without the fleecy, curved appearance of those of the already 

 mentioned species. In marshes and river swamps the plant grows best, and 

 jn the locality between Texas and North Carolina. 



C> reticitldta, another climber with solitary and nodding flowers belongs 



