THE TEAYBLLEE'S JOY. 



Clem'atis Vital'ba L. 



The Buttercup Family, or Natural Order Ranun- 

 cula'cecB, with which the enumeration of Flowering 

 Plants generally commences, consists almost entirely 

 of herbaceous plants. Their leaves spring singly 

 from the nodes or joints of their stems, that is, are 

 what is termed " scattered"; and, though often deeply 

 segmented, as in the Buttercups or Larkspurs, are 

 " simple," being all in one piece, with no articulations 

 of distinct leaflets in addition to. the one joint at 

 the base or attachment of the leaf. In the brightly- 

 coloured flowers of the Order, the corolla, or inner 

 whorl of perianth-leaves, is frequently absent, as, 

 for instance, in the Marsh Marigold and Anemones, 

 its place being taken by a coloured calyx, or outer 

 whorl, the leaves of which overlap one another in 

 the bud. 



It may, therefore, at first seem difficult to under- 

 stand the reasons which have made botanists class 

 in this Order the genus Gleviatis, of which the 

 Traveller's Joy {G. Vitalba L.) is the only wild 

 representative in Britain. Though a straggling, 

 clambering plant, not standing erect on its main stem 

 but twisting over hedgerows or bushes, or the sides 

 of chalk-pits, it has a distinctly woody perennial 

 stem, sometimes reaching many inches in diameter. 

 In the Duke of Rutland's garden at Belvoir Castle 



1& 121 



