SOME FALLACIES REGARDING THE CLEMATIS, 
295 
organism, I have received particulars of experiments made by Mr. 
W. C. Glover, of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 
who has been able to isolate the parasite which causes the " dying 
off," and to identify it as a fungus belonging to the genus Ascochyta, 
which he calls Ascochyta Clematidina, and his views entirely bear 
out the conclusions I had formed as to the nature and development 
of the disease. 
M. Morel, the writer of the letter already referred to, shares 
somewhat similar views regarding the nature of the affection. In 
the course of his letter, he observes : — 
" The real cause of the sudden death of the Clematis, which often 
die off when in full bloom, appears to me to be of bacterial origin, and 
is generally confined to a comparatively small portion of the stem, some- 
times located more or less high up, more often near the base of the plant, 
but also sometimes half-way up, or in the upper part. At this point, 
which is easy to find the moment a withered plant is cut open, it is 
found that the interior of the stem, extending sometimes for only a 
fraction of an inch, is filled with black powder coming from the 
decomposition of the vessels. . . . Above this point the plant is 
dead, below it is alive, and preparing vigorously for new growth." 
The last of the subjects with which I have to deal is that con- 
' cerning the origin of C. Jackmanni, which is, as is well known, a hybrid 
raised by my father. 
It has been asserted, on the authority of M. Lavallee, in " Les 
Clematites," t. 4, pp. 9-12 (published over thirty years ago), that it 
is the Japanese species, known as C. hakonensis. I can only repeat 
what I know to be absolutely the fact, as stated in " The Clematis," 
p. 9, by Moore and Jackman, that it was " the result (with others) 
of crossing C. lanuginosa by C. Render soni and C. Viticella atrorubens, 
in the summer of 1858. The plants bloomed first in 1862, those named 
C. Jackmanni and C. rubro-violacea being shown at Kensington in 
August 1863, and receiving certificates of merit of the first class." 
The first mention of C. hakonensis that I am aware of is in the 
" Enumeratio Plantarumin Japonia" (1879), ii. 263, by Franchet and 
Savatier, twenty years after C. Jackmanni was raised. 
If more is required to demonstrate the frivolity of the claim that 
C. Jackmanni is nothing but C. hakonensis, it is only necessary to turn 
to M- Lavallee's description of the latter species, in which he states 
" its seeds are always numerous, germinate easily, and reproduce 
the species almost without variation," whereas C. Jackmanni is 
generally sterile. 
Again, according to Franchet and Savatier's description of 
C. hakonensis (which the latter found growing in several districts in 
Japan), the leaves are " ternate," a characteristic of the patens and 
florida sections, whereas those of C. Jackmanni are pinnate or pinnati- 
sect. Also, in a recent Japanese work, the " Index Plantarum 
Japonicarum," vol. ii. part 2 (1912), p. no, by J. Matsumura. C. 
hakonensis is regarded as a synonym of C. florida. 
