TREE8 AND SHR1 



RANUNCULACEAE Jnss. Bi ttercup Family 



Herbs or climbing shrubs with alternate leaves, simple or 

 compound, and regular or irregular usually complete flowers having 

 all parts distinct and free. Sepals 3 to 15 often petaloid, mostly- 

 falling early. Petals usually the same number or wanting. Stamens 

 mostly numerous. Pistils many or few, sometimes only 1. Fruit 

 achenes, follicles or berries. A large family with only a few shrubby 

 species. 



Flowers small, 1 inch in diameter or less, white, 



numerous in panicles. 1. Clematis 



Flowers larger, 1 to 3 inches in diameter, mostly 

 solitary or only a few together. 

 Sepals usually 4 or 5, thick and leathery, dark 



reddish, not spreading. 2. Viorna. 



Sepals usually 5, thin and of delicate texture, 



purplish or paler, widely spreading. 3. Atrage.vb. 



All these species have plumose tailed achenes. 



I. CLEMATIS L. Virgin's Bower 



Perennial vines, more or less woody; flowers small, numerous 

 paniculate, dioecious or the pistillate flowers with sterile stamens ; 

 sepals petal-like, white, thin, spreading; petals wanting. 



Tails of the carpels 3 to 4 inches long; panicle 



with few (usually less than 10) flowers; 



leaflets small, an inch long or less. l. c. drummondii. 



Tails of the carpels 1% inches long or less: 



panicle many-flowered; leaflets 1% to 3 



inches long. 2 . C. UgusticifoUa. 



2. VIORNA Reichenb. Leather Flower 



Herbaceous or woody perennials with erect or climbing stems 

 sometimes several feet long; leaves pinnate; flowers solitary on long 

 peduncles, usually nodding; sepals thick erect mostly dull reddish, 

 or purple; petals none; anthers linear; achenes usually few. 



Leaflets strongly retlculately veined, more or 



less pubescent; sepals about % of an inch 



long very thick, attenuate at the apex. 1. V. filifera. 



Leaflets smooth, not strongly reticulate-veined; 



sepals 1 to lynches long, thinner, broader 



at the apex. 



Division of the leaflets acute, lanceolate; 



tails of the achenes plumose. f, Y. bigelovii. 



Divisions of the leaflets obtuse, ovate or ob- 

 long; tails of the achenes glabrate or 

 pubescent near the base. 3 . v . palmeri.. 



