Wild Flowers as They Grow 



Thus does Richard Jefferies describe " Clematis 

 Lane." And the Clematis seems always associated 

 with the highways of man ; it is the " Traveller's 

 Joy " — Gerard's name for it — " decking and adorn- 

 ing waies and hedges where people travell." The 

 vocation to bloom and die unseen has no attraction 

 for it, and it is perhaps because it ever keeps itself 

 before the public eye that it has received so many 

 famihar names up and down the land. Between 

 thirty and forty such have been collected, each of 

 which refers to some special characteristic. 



Early in the season when the spring flowers are 

 at their loveliest it is not much in evidence, but, as 

 their first glory passes and the summer days draw 

 on, it bursts into flower and claims the passer-by's 

 notice. Its stems, woody and tough, twist in and 

 out of the hedge, matting it together, but always 

 coming to the top and somewhat stifling the hedge- 

 row beneath it. It is the only plant we have that 

 can in any sense represent those giant climbers 



— the hanes and " twist - ropes " of the tropics. 



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