16 RANUNCULACE.E. 



ked, or rarely (in the foreign section Cheiropsis) with two 

 bractlets, forming an involucre under the flower. 



Etymology. KXq/wirir, a little Vine-branch or twig, applied by Dios- 

 corides to a plant of this, or some other genus, with long- and lithe stems. 



Properties. Acrid, and even blistering when applied in a fresh state to 

 the skin. Some species are used as rubefacients or vesicants. 



Geographical Distribution. Widely diffused over the world ; princi- 

 pally in the wanner temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. 



Division. The native species of the United States are conveniently divid- 

 ed into two sections : the first comprising those which, like our Common 

 Virgin's Bower (C. Yirginiana, L.), bear rather small, white or cream-col- 

 ored, polygamo-dicecious flowers, in clusters or panicled cymes : the second 

 including those with larger and solitary flowers, and more or less thick and 

 leathery sepals ; — of which our plate, drawn from a plant cultivated in the 

 Botanic Garden at Cambridge, affords a good illustration. 



PLATE 2. Clematis crispa, Linn. ; * — summit of a branch in flower 

 and fruit, of the natural size. 



1. Transverse section of the sepals, to show their aestivation and thickness. 



2. Vertical section of a flower. 



3. 4. Stamens magnified, front and back view. 



5. A pistil, magnified. (It should have been more hairy.) 



G. Vertical section of the ovary, more magnified, with the ovule in place. 



7. Ovule detached, and more highly magnified. 



8. A ripe achenium, vertically divided, and displaying the seed in place ; 



with the persistent caudate style : enlarged. 



9. Vertical section of a seed, magnified, showing the two integuments, 



the albumen, and the embryo. 

 10. Embryo detached, and highly magnified (turned, as in all the ensuing 

 cases of the kind, so as to bring the radicle downwards). 



* The C. crispa of De Candolle, Syst. 1. p. 162 (spec. hort. Audib.), is a form, 

 or near ally, of C. Viticella or C. campaniflora, and undoubtedly not an Ameri- 

 can plant. This accounts for his placing the species in the section Viticella, and 

 for liis remark under C. campaniflora. The fruit, in the rude figure of Dilleni- 

 us, upon which Linnteus founded the species, is delineated as if the persistent 

 styles were perfectly naked and glabrous, while the description merely states 

 that they are not plumose. They are usually about as hairy as here represent- 

 ed. — Dr. Lindley (in Bot. Reg. for 1846,^01. 32. t. 60) has lately attempted 

 to elucidate this species and its allies, but not, in all respects, with the best suc- 

 cess. There is here merely room to state that C. cylindrica, Bot. Mag. t. 1160. 

 is surely the same as the C Viorna, Andr. Bot. Rep. (which Lindley says is C 

 Hendersonii) ; and that the C. crispa, Bot. Mug. t. 1892, is not C. reticulata, but 

 clearly the same as his own C. crispa (which will be found not to have a "short- 

 tailed mucronate fruit") and the one here figured; of which the C. cordata 

 Bot. Mag. t. 1816, is merely a variety. 



