Section III 

 BLUE TO PURPLE FLOWERS 



Flowers that are blue to purple^ or occasionally so, but not 

 described in this Section 



Page 

 Wild Heliotrope .... Valeriana sylvatica (White to Green Section) ... 67 

 White Heliotrope . . . Valeriana sitchensts (White to Green Section) ... 67 



WILD CLEMATIS 



Clematis Columbiana. Crowfoot Family 



A trailing and partly climbing vine. Leaves: trifoliolate ; leaflets thin, 

 ovate, acute, more or less cordate, slightly toothed or entire ; petioles 

 slender. Flowers: solitary; sepals thin and translucent, strongly veined, 

 silky along the margins and the veins ; petals spatulate ; styles per- 

 sistent, plumose throughout. 



The large lovely flowers of the Wild Clematis are attract- 

 ive by reason of their four or five big purple-blue sepals, for 

 their petals are very small and inconspicuous, surrounding the 

 numerous yellow stamens. When in fruit this plant is also in- 

 teresting, as the fine feathery styles form silvery heads, the 

 long plumes of which are delicately entwined. 



Its slender leaf -stalks are the means by which the Clematis 

 climbs and clings to bushes, trees, and rocks, festooning with 

 graceful garlands everything that comes in its way and delight- 

 ing the traveller's eye with its wide-spread, semi-transparent, 

 prominently veined flowers. The leaves are formed of three 

 small, deeply veined leaflets, which grow on sUm, rather 

 woody stems. 



185 



