231 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



style terminating in a little white feathery 

 process when the seed ripens : the plant at 

 that time appears covered with little tufts of 

 cotton. In its native habitats this plant flow- 

 ers in July and August; but in Britain it 

 continues in flower from July to October. 

 From the rapidity of its growth, it will in 

 four or five years cover a very large space of 

 wall, roof, or bower. Its herbage is con- 

 sidered less acrid than that of any other of 

 the European species, notwithstanding its 

 name of Flammula. (Dec. Syst.) 



Geography. This well-known species 

 seems confined to the middle and south of 

 Europe and to the north of Africa. It is 

 found in the south of France in hedges, 

 and in waste bushy places ; in Greece, Italy, 

 Spain, and Portugal (see p. 132. and p. 164.), 

 and in all these countries, generally in low 

 situations, not far from the sea, and in soil 

 more or less calcareous. 



History and Use. C. Flammula appears 

 to have been first recorded by Dodonaeus, 

 in his Stirpium Historke Pemptades, in 1585; 

 it was recognised by Matthiolus and L'Obel, 

 and cultivated by Gerard in 1597; and it 

 is now generally grown in gardens throughout Europe and North America 

 for covering bowers, garden-houses, trellis-work, and naked walls ; for which 

 purposes it is well adapted from its rapid growth, its intense fragrance when 

 in flower, and its tufted cottony masses when in seed. 



Statistics. Plants may be had in all the European nurseries : about London, 

 of the smallest size, at about 5s. per hundred, or 6d. for a single strong plant ; 

 at Bollwyller, at from 6 francs to 8 francs the hundred, or about half a franc 

 a plant ; and at New York, for 30 cents per plant. 



± 2. C. ORIENTALS L. 



The Oriental Clematis. 



Lam. Diet. Enc, 2. p. 42. ; Hayne Dend., 119. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 765.; Willd. Sp., 2. 1289. 



Dec. Prod., 1. p. 3. ; Don's Mill., 1. p. 4. 

 Synonymes. Flammula scandens apii folio glauco, Dill. Elth., 144. ; C. flava Moench. Meth., 296. ; 



the eastern, or yellow-flowered, Virgin's Bower; Clematite orientale, Fr. ; Morgenliindische Wald- 



rebe, Get: 

 Engravings. Dill. Elth., t. 119. f. 145. : and our fig. 10. 



Spec. Char. Leaves pinnate; leafletssmooth wedge- 

 shaped, with three toothed pointed lobes. (Don's 

 Mill.yi. p. 4.) Flowers greenish yellow, slightly 

 tinged with russet, sweet-scented. Aug. Sept. 

 1731. Height 15 ft. 



Description. The general magnitude of this 

 species resembles that of C. Flammula, from which 

 it differs, in its ulterior branches being more per- 

 sistently ligneous, though the main stem in old 

 plants is seldom seen so thick as that of C. Flam- 

 mula. It is also distinguished from the latter 

 species by throwing up suckers freely, which the 

 other does not. Its leaflets are glaucous, flat, 

 large as compared with those of C. Flammula, and 

 it does not produce flowers so profusely as that 

 species ; the flowers are yellowish, and not so 

 strongly scented ; and the carpels are dissimilar, 

 though still cottony in appearance when the seed 

 is ripe. 



