Clematis. I. RANUNCULACEZ. 3 
A larger climber, its woody stems attaining even the thickness of the 
wrist and a length of several yards, whilst the young branches spread 
to a great extent over shrubs, clinging by their twisted petioles. 
Leaves pinnate, usually with 5 ovate stalked segments. Flowers 
greenish-white, in loose panicles at the ends of short axillary or 
terminal branches. Carpels, when ripe, very conspicuous from the 
persistent styles, which grow out into long feathery awns. 
In hedges, thickets, and open woods in central and southern Europe 
to the Caucasus. Abundant in several of the southern and some of the 
central counties of England, and naturalised in Ireland. Fl. summer. 
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Il, THALICTRUM. THALICTRUM. 
Herbs with a short perennial rootstock, annual, erect stems, and 
much divided leafstalks, bearing distinct segments or leaflets. Sepals 
4 or 5, small, coloured, and petal-like, but no real petals. Stamens 
numerous, with long anthers projecting beyond the calyx. Carpels 
several, 1-seeded, furrowed, and usually acute at both ends. 
A considerable genus eenerally diffused over the northern hemisphere, 
distinguished from Actwa by the distinct 1-seeded carpels, from all 
others of the Order by the thin texture of the sepals, the large anthers, 
and peculiar foliage. The species are very variable and difficult to 
characterise. They have also been much multiplied by modern botanists, 
but if the British forms be limited to three species, their characters are 
more striking. : 
Stem simple, seldom 6 inches high : : : : : ; . 1. 7. alpinum. 
Stem 1 or more feet high. 
Leaflets roundish ; panicle diffuse ; flowers mostly drooping i) 2 Pominis: 
Leaflets obovate Or ee shaped Pangete Soe flowers 
mostly erect. : . 3. T. flavum. 
Some foreign leeepea species are #6 be met with in old gardens, 
especially the tall handsome 7’. aquilegifoliwm. 
1. T. alpinum, Linn. (fig. 2). Alpine 7.—Stem usually simple and 
almost leafless, from 4 to 6 inches high. Leaves mostly radical, about 
half the height of the stem, with the footstalk twice divided into 3 
or 5 branches; leaflets small, roundish, and crenate or lobed. Panicle 
nearly reduced to a simple raceme. Flowers few and drooping, each 
with 4smallsepals. Stamens from 10to20. Carpels generally reduced 
to 2 or 3. Pedicel of the fruit recurved, as well as that of the flower. 
An alpine plant, native of the mountains of northern Europe and 
Asia, and at greater elevations in the mountains of central and southern 
Europe, Asia, and North America. Abundant in the Highlands of Scot- 
land; very rare in Ireland, local in northern England and North Wales. 
Fl. summer. 
2. T. minus, Linn. (fig. 3). Lesser 7.—A very variable species; in 
dry limestone soils often only a foot high, of a glaucous hue, or slig ohtly 
downy ; in moist, rich situations (where, however, it is seldom found) it 
is much larger and greener, but readily distinguished from 7’. flavum by 
its loose panicle occupying a great part of its height ; the pedicel also 
is as long or longer than the flower, and recurved in bud, although it 
becomes erect as the fruit ripens. Stem usually in zigzag, making a 
bend at every node. Petioles, especially of the lower and rootleaves, 
