RANUNCULACEA. : 399 
from the growth of the style. They are climbing shrubs. The 
leaves, when pulled and laid upon the body, produce inflammation, 
vesication, and ulceration of the skin; properties which mendi- 
cants sometimes use to produce artificial ulcers,—hence one of their 
common names, Beggar’s Herb. Its flowers are white, disposed 
in axillary panicles; the name of “ Virgin’s Bower” was given 
to this species by old Gerarde in 1597, “ by reason”’ as he tells us, 
“of the goodly shadowe which they make with their thick bushing 
and climing ; as also for the beauty of the flowers, and the pleasant 
savor or scent of the same.” And indeed there is no finer orna- 
ment in our country hedges, than this pretty bush with its copious 
clusters of white blossom. The flower has one floral envelope, and 
is one-cloaked ; the corolla is absent, hence the flower is apetalous. 
Fig. 402 is a front view of the flower, Fig. 403 a back view of the 
Fig. 402. _ Fig, 403. 
Back and front view of the flower of Clematis vita/ba. 
same flower. We meet sometimes on lawns and gardens with Clema- 
tis lammula (Sweet Clematis),where it is used to ornament, palisades 
and bowers, and where it is distinguished from the preceding 
Species by its sepals, which are covered with a hairy down at the 
edges. We frequently see clumps of Clematis viticella, where the 
sepals are violet, purple, or rose colour, the flowers of which are’ 
produced double by cultivation. We sometimes see beside this 
Species, the Atragenum of the Alps, remarkable for the beauty of 
its large flowers of violet blue: the Atragene tribe is distinguished 
from the Clematis by the existence of a corolla, composed of nu- 
merous petals shorter than the sepals. 
Pzontes (Peonia) have the calyx foliaceous, coriaceous, persis- 
tent, with unequal sepals ; the corolla is composed of five, six, or ten 
