r.o 



NATVTIAL mSTOIiY OF PLANTS. 



of its genus, grows in Canada and the United States. From its stock 

 a stem arises in tlie spring, which bears only a small number of 

 alternate petiolate palmatifid leaves,' and is terminated by a solitary 

 flower. 



III. CLEMATIS SEEIES. 



The genus Clematis- has regular, usually hermaphrodite, flowers. 

 In a laro-e number of the species cultivated by us as ornamental 

 plants— as, for instance, C. montana, Benth. (fig. 89)— we find at the 

 base of the convex floral receptacle (figs. 90, 91) a single petaloid 

 perianth consisting of a calyx of four free sepals,' valvate of in- 



FiG. 89. 

 Flower. 



Clematis montana. 

 Fig. 90. 

 Loiigritudinal section of flower. 



Fig. 91. 

 Dia^rram. 



duplicative* praefloration. The numerous hypogynous stamens each 

 consist of a free filament, and a basifixed anther -with tw^o lateral 



' The superior leaf is usually sessile. The in- 

 ferior hus often two small glands at the base of 

 its petiole. 



' Clematis L., Gen., n. 696. — Jtjss., Gen., 

 232.— DC, Prodr., i. 2.— Endl., Gen., n. 4768. 

 — Spach, Suit, a Buff., vii. 257.— B. H., Gen., 

 3. — Walp., Sep., i. 3; ii. 737; v. 3; Ann., i. 

 3, 953; ii. 3, 5; iv. 3, Q.— Clematitis T., Instit., 

 293, t. 150; Cor. 20. — Trigula Noeonh. — 

 Sli)luru.<! Raffn. — Clematopsis Boj. 



^ Two of these sepals are lateral ; the two 

 others are anterior and posterior. Pateb 

 {Organog., 252) has seen that they arise in twos; 

 the former pair after the latter. 



* The sepals therefore touch, not by their 

 edges, but by the lateral portions of their outer 

 sorfiicc. The portion thus inflected in the bud 

 varies in extent in different species ; and when it 

 is very large the sepal is here tliinner, and usually 



of a paler tint. Later on, after the expansion of 

 the flower, the sepals which were valvate may even 

 overlap one anotlier by the thin expanded 

 margins, as we have ascertained (Adansonia, 

 iv. 53). We have also shown (l. cit., 55) that 

 then the flower of a Clematis becomes exactly 

 that of an Anemone, and so the two series are 

 closely bound together, and might even be con- 

 founded when we add that " the outer stamens of 

 Clematis become staminodes in Atraqene and 

 Naravelia, as happens in the section Pulsatilla 

 of the genus Anemone ; that the fruit of this same 

 Pulsatilla is exactly that of Flammula ; and 

 finally, that in Cheiropsi's the flower has an in- 

 volucre wanting in the other sections of the genus 

 Clematis, but recalling that of the true Ane- 

 mones." The habit, too, of Anemone japonica is 

 met with in C. tubulosa and some others. 



