Clematis.] I. RANUNCULACE/E. 5 



pinnately or ternately divided into three or more petiolulate segments, or rarely 

 simple, the petiole often twisted or twining. Flowers axillary or terminal soli- 

 tary, or in panicles, which are shortened branches with the leaves reduced to 

 small bracts, and often polygamous or dioecious. 



A large genus, dispersed over the temperate regions both of the New and the Old World, rare 

 within the tropics. The Australian species are all endemic, although one is closely connected 

 with a South Pacific one. They have all simple or once- or twice-ternately divided leaves, 

 dioecious, apetalous, white or cream-coloured flowers, the males usually without any ovaries, the 

 females with a few imperfect stamens, and the carpels of all have plumose tails. — Benth. 



Anthers linear or oblong, tipped by a subulate or oblong appendage. 

 Woody climbers. Leaflets mostly once or twice ternate. 

 Anl^er-points slender. Leaflets almost coriaceous, when 



large usually toothed, when small twice ternate . . . 1. C aristata. 

 Anther-points very short. Leaflets usually 3, rather large, 



thin, and entire 2. C glycinoidet. 



Anthers short, without any appendage. 

 Leaflets ternate, rather large, loosely pubescent under- 

 neath var. suhmutica. 



Leaflets mostly twice ternate, small or narrow, glabrous 



or closely pubescent . 3. C microphylla 



var. Fawcettii. 



1. C. aristata (awned), R. Br., Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 6. A woody climber, 

 trailing over rocks and bushes, or ascending into tall trees, glabrous, or softly 

 pubescent, especially on the inflorescence. Leaves mostly on long petioles, and 

 divided into 3-petiolulate segments or leaflets, varying from ovate-cordate to 

 narrow-lanceolate, obtuse or acute, 1 to 2 or even Bin. long, usually irregularly 

 toothed when large, entire when small, and of a firm consistence when full 

 grown, but some of the leaves near the base of the flowering branches are 

 occasionally simple, and others have often twice-ternate leaflets. Flowers white 

 or yellowish, usually in short panicles or clusters in the upper axils. Sepals 4, 

 or very rarely 5, oblong or linear-lanceolate, usually f to lin. long when fully 

 out, glabrous or pubescent. Anthers oblong-linear, tipped by a subulate appen- 

 dage, often as long as the cells, usually rather shorter, the outer anthers on long 

 filaments, the inner ones almost sessile. Achenes numerous, ovate or lanceolate, 

 pubescent or glabrous, with a plumose tail often attaining l^in. — F. v. M. PL 

 Vict., i. 3 ; Bot. Reg. t. 238. 



Hab.: Killarney. Flowering in Oct. 



Var. Umgiseta, Bail. Bot. Bull. vii. A climber, glabrous except the young shoots and inflores- 

 cence. Leaves on slender petioles, leaflets 3, ovate-lanceolate, attaining the length of about 2in. 

 and mostly under Jin. broad at the base, where they slightly taper to the rather long petiolules, 

 margins bordered by distant setaceous teeth. Flowers yellowish, tomentose, in short racemes, in 

 the axils of the leaves. Pedicels rather long and slender. Sepals 4, about 5 lines long, linear- 

 lanceolate. Anthers often more ovate than oblong, and usually upon short filaments, the terminal 

 awn frequently exceeding in length that of both anther and filament and often three times the 

 length of the anther, and tapering to a hair-like point. Female flowers and achenes not to hand. 



Hab.: Upper Nerang, if. Schneider. Flowering in Nov. 



2. C. glycinoides (resembling a Glycine), D0\ Benth. in Fl. Austr. i. 7. A 

 woody climber, very near to those forms of C. aristata which have simply ternate 

 rather large ovate-lanceolate or cordate leaflets,, but these leaflets are usually of a 

 thinner consistence, often broader, and quite entire or rarely with a single tooth 

 near the base. Flowers usually smaller, the sepals narrow, from ^ to fin., pubes- 

 cent or rarely glabrous. Anthers rather shorter, with a very short obtuse and 

 almost gland-like appendage. Achenes glabrous or pubescent, usually narrower 

 than in C. aristata, with tails of about 2in. — C. stenosepala, DC. 



Var. svhmutica. Leaf-segments loosely pubescent underneath, sepals shorter, broader, and 

 more villous than in the other forms, antJtiers short, tipped by a minute gland or entirely without 

 appendage, as in C. microphylla. 



Hab.: Brisbane Biver to Rockingham Bay and beyond. Flowering in Aug. 



