126 FAMILIAR TREES 



Ancienne," cogently argues that the word " viburnum," 

 in the hne of Virgil's first Eclogue, 



" Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi," 



which we have quoted in speaking of the Wayfaring- 

 tree, is more applicable to C. vior'na, a South 

 European species, than it is to any Guelder-rose 

 or Privet, as the whole point of the poet's simile 

 is the contrast of the erect, lofty Cypress with the 

 twining character of the other plant. Certainly the 

 abbreviated specific name of our species, from Vi'tis 

 al'ba, "White Vine," may well be borrowed from 



Ovid's 



" Lentior et saliois virgis et vitibus albis." 



We now know about 170 wild species in the 

 genus ; and, though the majority of these are 

 natives of the North Temperate Zone, many of 

 them occurring in North America, many in Japan 

 and Northern China, and several in the Himalayas, 

 yet, as others grow in South Africa and in New 

 Zealand, the group may fairly be termed cosmo- 

 politan. The first of these exotic species to be 

 introduced into cultivation in England was the South 

 European C. Viticd'la L., which was cultivated in 1569 

 by Hugh Morgan, who was apothecary to Queen 

 Elizabeth, and whom Gerard styles " a curious con- 

 servator of simples." It may well have been, there- 

 fore, by way of compliment to the " Virgin Queen '* 

 that Gerard styled Clematis "Virgin's Bower." 



Preferring a calcareous soil, our British species is 

 a southern type and is unknown in a wild state in 

 Scotland. Though this English species is destitute of 



