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first plant collected was a ClematiSy which, being erroneously 

 described in the various Floras as Clematis ovata, Pursh, is now 

 named by Dr. Britton, in honor of the President of the Torrey 

 Botanical Club — Clematis Addisoniif^ (Plate IIL) I 



graph, are of classificatory importance. The form of the leaf does not exactly 



agree with that of any oi the specimeas you send. The leaves ou our sped- 





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CLEMATIS ADDISONTT. [C. ovata, Terr. & Gray, FI. N. A. i. (1838), not 

 Pursh, FL Amer. Sept. ii., Suppl. 736 (1814). 



Ascending or erect, 1^-3° long, simple or bushy-branched, tufted, gla- 

 brous throughout, glaucous. Branches slender and often trailing. Lower 

 leaves simple, entire or rarely 2-4 lobed, obtuse, deep bluish-green above, 

 conspicuously glaucous beneath, sessile, clasping, 2'-4' long ; upper leaves 

 pinnate and tendril bearing, of 2 or 4 ovate, sessile leaflets, or in small plants 

 simple and similar to the lower ; flowers solitary, terminal and sometimes also 

 axillary, reddish or bluish-purple, nodding, ovate, 9"-i5" long, 5"-?" broad 

 at the base, narrowed toward the summit; sepals thick and leathery, lance- 

 olate, acute, their tips recurved ; stamens numerous, about equaling the 

 sepals, glabrous below, pubescent above ; achenia flat, nearly orbicular, 

 blunt-margined, finely silky-pubescent ; persistent styles i'-^}£ long, 

 plumose throughout, the plumes brown ; achenia 6-20 in each head. 



This plant has had a peculiar and very interesting history. It appears to 

 have been first collected many years ago by Le Conte in the mountains of 

 North Carolina, and specimens of this collection are preserved both at Phila- 

 delphia and New York. It was also found by Baldwin in Georgia or Florida. 

 The first allusion to it In print that I have come upon is in Torrey and Gray's ^ 



Flora, where Pursh's name ovafa was erroneously taken up for it, as it has 

 also been by all subsequent authors who have had occasion to refer to it. Dr. 

 Gray was the first to make this out, by an examination of Pursh's type in the ! 



Sherardian Herbarium preserved at Oxford, and in writing of the group of 

 American species of CLvnatis with pinnate leaves in Bot. Mag., tab. 6594, he 

 says, in describing; C. reticulata, o. coriaceous-leaved southern plant : '* C ovata, 

 Pursh, of which the original specimens in Herb. Oxon. have leaves almost as 

 reticulated as this when old, appears to be C, ochroleuca^ Ait." In order to 

 make sure of this, as from Dr. Gray*s expression "■ appears to be " I suspected 

 that he was not altogether certain about it, I sent abundant specimens of both 

 the Roanoke plant and of C. ochroleuca. Ait., collected on Staten Island, to 

 Professor Sidney H. Vines, the distinguished director of the Oxford Botanic^ 

 Garden and Museum. He very kindly compared them with the ClematU of 

 the Sherardian Herbarium, and reports to me as follows : 



^*It is a single branch, bearing four leaves and a single flower in fruit. It 

 is numbered 1140, and bears the following label : * No. 1 140 Clematis virgm- 

 iana, Pannonica similis, foUis amplioribus subrotundis. Pluk. Mant., Tab. 

 397, f. 4. Negroe's Head. Mr. Dale's specimen has larger and rounder leaves. f 



Dr. Pluk. figure represents this, but y^ leaves are trifida or tridentata.' 



'^On this label is penciled, 'C. ovata, Pursh SuppT.,' without indications of 

 writer. Also in another hand, ' C. venosa. Ph. am. fl.' 



*'The specimen has no sepals which, according to Kuntze's recent mono. 



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