Clematis. | — I, RANUNCULACER. 3 
petioles. Leaves pinnate, usually with five 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 naturalized in Ireland. #7, summer, 
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 generally diffused over the northern hemisphere, 
distinguished from Actea by the distinct one-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 characterize. 
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 . ° ° ° . . » Ll, Z. alpinum. 
Stem one or more feet high. 
Leaflets roundish ; panicle diffuse ; ies dirs mostly drooping . 2. 7. minus. 
Leaflets obovate or welee: “shaped ; aa nis coerce flowers 
mostly erect . : : . & TL. flavum. 
Some foreign European species are to be ‘met with in old gardens, espe- 
cially the tall, handsome 7". aquilegifolium. 
1. T. alpinum, Linn. (fig. 2). Alpine 7.—Stem usually simple and al- 
most leafless, from 4 to Ginches high. Leaves mostly radical, about half the 
height of the stem, with the footstalk twice divided into three or five branches ; 
leaflets small, roundish and crenate or lobed. Panicle nearly reduced to a 
simple raceme. Flowers few and drooping, each with 4 small sepals. 
Stamens from 10 to 20. 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 N. America. Abundant in the Highlands of Scotland; very rare 
in Ireland, local in northern England and North Wales. FV. summer. 
2, T.minus, Linn, (fig. 3). Lesser 7.—A very variable species ; in dry 
limestone soils often not more than a foot high, of a glaucous hue, or slightly 
downy ; in moist, rich situations (where however it is seldom found) it is 
much larger and greener, but readily distinguished from the following 
species by its loose panicle occupying a great part of its height; the 
pedicel also is as long or longer than the flower, and recurved at least 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 root 
leaves, three or four times divided, with very numerous, small leaflets, 
roundish or broadly wedge-shaped, trifid and toothed. Flowers usually 
of a pale greenish-yellow, with a pink tinge on the sepals. Stamens 
‘Numerous, with long, narrow anthers. Carpels from 3 to 5 or 6, very acute 
and strongly furrowed. 
B2 
