Crowfoot jfamil^. 



Clematis. Clematis Virginiana. 



Virgin's Bower. 

 Traveller's Joy. 



Found tlarougli July and August climbing over wayside thickets 

 and along river banks. 



The stalk of this charming vine is leafy, round, tough-fibred, and 

 grooved, and rather slender. It is green in coloi-, tinged more or less 

 with dull bronzy purple. 



The large leaf is compound of 3 leaflets, that are oval with a long, 

 tapering point, and a slightly heart-shaped base ; the margin is cut into 

 a few large notches, and occasionally is lobed ; the ribs are strong, the 

 texture firm, and the surface is smooth. Each leaflet is set on a short 

 curved stem ; the leaves, on their long stems, are placed opposite each 

 other. In color they are dark green. 



The flowers are of two kinds, the pistil-bearing blossoms and the 

 stamen-bearing occur on separate plants. The flower of both plants 

 has 4 petal-like calyx-parts, of oblong shape with rounded tips; the 

 color is greenish white ; the stamens and pistils are pale green. The 

 flowers grow on short light green stems, in branching clusters from the 

 angles of the leaves and the end of the vine. 



The Clematis climbs by means of its leaf-stems, which grow in strong 

 deep curves ; it sometimes hooks them over a support, and again clasps 

 them more securely by twisting the stem once or twice around. It is 

 what Euskin calls a " gadding vine," for it runs riot over stone wall 

 and hedge, stretching out a social hand to every wayside shrub, and 

 swinging its flowery festoons from dry twig to leafy sapling. The 

 green of the leafage is agreeably varied by the purple-bronzy leaves of 

 the new growths ; and the silvery feathery seeds, following the pistil- 

 bearing blossoms in September and October, are quite as beautiful as 

 the flower, and have a faint, delightful fragrance of their own. 



3° 



