CROWFOOT FAMILY 



wandered far from the buttercup type. The upper sepal has be- 

 come not a spur but a hood, and under this hood are two petals 

 whose shape to us is more like two hammers with long handles 

 than anything else; but to our forefathers it seems to have sug- 

 gested in some curious way two hidden monks — whence the 

 ancient name, Monkshood. Usually these two strange petals 

 represent the entire corolla, but sometimes there are three more 

 which look like little stamens without any anthers. 



WILD CLEMATIS 



Clematis virginiana. 



Clematis, the Greek name of a climbing plant. 



The well-known Clematis of Northern fields, wild wood tangles, and 

 river banks, climbing over rocks and shrubs. Perennial. July, August. 



Stem. — ^Woody, climbing, smooth. 



Leaves. — Opposite, trifoliate; leaflets ovate, acute, cut or lobed, 

 heart-shaped at base; the stem climbing by means of the leaf -stalk. 



Flowers. — White, borne in full-panicled clusters from the axils of the 

 leaves; dioecious or polygamo-dioecious. 



Calyx. — Four petal-like sepals, white, thin. 



Corolla. — Wanting. 



Stamens. — Many in the staminate flowers; wanting or imperfect in the 

 pistillate. 



Carpels. — Many in the polygamo-dicecious and pistillate flowers; 

 wanting in the staminate. 



As the carpels ripen the styles lengthen into conspicuous feathery tails. 



The Wild Clematis is the graceful queen of our Northern road- 

 sides, trailing over rocks and fences, swinging its drooping sprays 

 in charming abandon from the tops of shrubs and the low branches 

 of trees. It may generally be found throughout the North, bloom- 

 ing in midsummer wherever there is a thicket of bushes in the open 

 protected from cattle. • 



The roots need the coolness and moisture which the thicket 

 gives, and the stems, woody but weak, require support, so the 

 plant shoulders its way up to the sunlight. 



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