256 PLORA AND SYLVA 
in colour than Vitalba and more fragrant, but 
as with many wild Clematis, seedlings vary 
greatly and bad forms are common. The flow- 
ers come in August and September and give 
place to masses of feathery seed-pods which 
last in beauty far into the autumn and are useful 
for decoration. Left to ramble at will this is 
one of the best of all plants for screening rough 
walls and untidy places ; to be seen at its best 
it requires full sunlight. Good selected forms 
and some coloured varieties are grown in gar- 
dens, the best being robusta^ larger and with 
leaves of firmer texture, flowering a little later; 
7'ubella^ in which the flowers are red on the 
outside; caspitosa in which they hang grace- 
fully upon long slender pedicels ; and rubra 
marginata^ a good variety in which the flowers 
are suffused with ruby-red. 
C. Jiorida. — A slender climber of 9 to 12 
feet, brought long ago from Japan and now 
almost unknown in its wild form, though 
double-flowered and other garden varieties are 
grown. The leaf is variously divided into small 
leaflets, and the flowers, composed of five or 
six sepals, open very flat and are 2 to 4 inches 
across, creamy-white in colour with a bunch 
of dark stamens in the centre and bars of dull 
purple across the outside of the flowers. Japan. 
Forms with violet and rosy flowers exist, and 
adoublewhitevarietyF^Jr/w/Zd'/jin which though 
lasting well the blooms are more curious than 
beautiful, turning pink with age. C. bicolor 
(Syn. C Sicboldi) also with double flowers, is 
classed as a form of Jiorida. A very distinct 
kind, it is hardy though of delicate appearance, 
and easily grown in a warm corner ; it is very 
free also in its flowers, which open slowly and 
last a long while. In these the broad seg- 
ments are greenish on opening, clearing to 
creamy-white with a green band down the 
centre of the lower side ; the inner part of 
the flower is composed of a thick tuft of 
narrow violet-purple petals, set off by a white 
edging. 
C Fremonti. — A plant very near C. ochro- 
leuca of which it may be only a geographical 
form. It throws herbaceous stems i to 2 feet 
high and seldom branched, with uncut leath- 
ery leaves almost devoid of stem and entire 
save for a few coarse teeth. The purple flowers 
droop from the tips of the shoots in July and 
August, with recurved tips and downy edges. 
Western United States. 
C.fusca. — This kind is nearly midway be- 
tween the climbing and shrubby species, with 
trailing stems of 6 to 8 feet. It comes from 
N.-E. Asia, and is remarkable for its solitary 
bell-shaped flowers, an inch long and recurved 
at the tips, opening in July. They are reddish- 
brown in colour and coated with down which 
extends to the stems as a thick brown wool. 
The flowers give place to heavy rounded heads 
of seed, studded with feathery tails. 
C. grata. — A rare kind from the Himalaya, 
seldom seen true. It is a free-growing climber 
of about 12 feet, with stout wiry stems and 
deep green leaves cut into five rounded and 
hairy leaflets. The flowers come with great 
freedom in September and October as vast 
loose heads, sometimes 18 inches long, the 
blooms an inch or more across and composed 
Ci,EMATis Heracleafolia var. Davidiana. 
of four very narrow white sepals shaded with 
purple on the outside, and a central mass of 
pure-white stamens. From the stiffness of its 
stems this has been wrongly called an herb- 
aceous Clematis ; it is best grown upon shel- 
tered walls. 
C. greuDiceJiora. — A rare Himalayan species 
and somewhat tender in all save the warmer 
parts of our country, but worth a place under 
glass in colder districts for its freedom during 
winter. The flowers are not showy being of 
a clear tawny yellow colour like a brightly 
tinted wreath of Hops, and coming freely at 
