RANUNCTJLACEiE. 55 



1. Common Clematis. Clematis Vitalba, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 612. Traveller's Joy, Old Man's Beard.) 



A large climber, the only indigenous plant wliieh may give a faint idea of 

 the busli-ropes of the tropics. Its woody stems will attain eVen the thick- 

 ness of the wrist and a length of several yards, whilst the young branches 

 spread to a great extent over shrubs and trees, clinging by their twisted pe- 

 tioles. Leaves pinnate, usually with five ovate stalked segments. Flowers 

 greenish-white, in loose panicles at the ends of short, axUlary or terminal 

 branches. Carpels, when ripe, very conspicuous from the persistent styles, 

 which grow out into long, feathery awns. 



In hedges, thickets, and open woods in central and southern Europe to 

 the Caucasus. Abundant in several of the soutliern and some of the central 

 counties of England, and naturalized in Ireland. FL summer. 



II. THALICTRUra. THALICTRUM. 



Herbs with a short, perennial rootstock, annual, erect stems, and much 

 divided leafstalks, bearing distinct segments or leaflets. Sepals 4 or 5, 

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

 long anthei-s projecting beyond the calyx. Carpels several, l-seeded, fur- 

 rowed, and usually acute at both ends. 



A considerable genus generally diffused over the nortiiem hemisphere, 

 distinguished from Aetna, by the distinct one-seeded carpels, from all others 

 of the Order, by the thin texture of the sepals, almost concealed by the pro- 

 minent stamens, and the peculiar foliage. The species are very variable 

 and difficult to characterize. They have also been much multiphed by 

 modem botanists, but if many of their forms be considered as mere varieties, 

 and the British species limited to three, their characters are more striking. 



Stem simple, seldom 6 inches high 1. Alpine T, 



Stem one or more feet high. 



Leaflets roundish ; panicle difi'use ; flowers mostly drooping ... 2. Leaser T. 



Leaflets obovate or wedge-shaped; panicle compac:; flowers mostly 



erect 3. Yeltoie T. 



Some foreign European species are to be met with in old gardens, espe- 

 cially the tall, handsome T. aquilegifolium. 



1. Alpine Tbalictrum. Thalictrum alpinum, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 262.) 



Stem usually simple and almost leafless, from 4 to 6 inches high. Leaves 

 mostly radical, about half the height of the stem, with the footstalk twice 

 divided into three or five branches ; leaflets small, roundish and crenate or 

 lobed. Panicle nearly reduced to a simple raceme. Flowers few and droop- 

 ing, each with 4 small sepals. Stamens from 10 to 20. Cai-pels generally 

 reduced to 2 or 3. Pedicel of the fruit recui-ved, as well as that of the 

 flower. 



An alpine plant, frequent in the mountains of northern Europe and Asia, 

 and at considerable elevations in the great mountain-chains of central and 

 southern Europe and central Asia. Abundant in the Higlilands of Scot- 

 land ; more local in Ireland, in northern England, and K^orth Wales. FL 

 swnmer. 



