BRITISH PLANTS — THE CLEMATIS. 
271 
cubic yards. The cubic yard of compact 
guano, as it is found on the islands, weighs 
more than half a ton ; but taking it at half a 
ton, it follows that there are 46,632,180 tons, 
which quantity, supposing an annual con- 
sumption of 50,000 tons, is more than suf- 
ficient for the next nine hundred years. Sepa- 
rately I address your Excellency upon the way 
in which I consider the work ought to be 
arranged for the shipment of the guano, and 
the saving of labour, time, and money which 
may be effected. God preserve your Excellency. 
"Jose Villa." 
—Pp. 9, 10. 
The pamphlet consists (after the elaborate 
historical notice of discovery and uses) of 
practical lessons for its application under vari- 
ous circumstances. Its preparation for vise, 
however, is good for all purposes ; and this 
consists in mixing it with four times its bulk 
of earth, ashes, sawdust, charcoal, or even sand, 
putting it through a coarse sieve to clear it of 
bones, beaks, and claws of birds. There is to 
be a layer of the mould or other stuff with 
which it is to be mixed and then a layer of 
guano, then a layer of mould and another 
of guano, and so on alternately. Then the 
heap is to be mixed together, and to lay in a 
heap a day or two before using. The increased 
bulk enables us to spread it about with greater 
facility and more evenly than it could be done 
without the additional quantity of mixing 
material. We next have directions for its 
application to turnips, potatoes, wheat, barley, 
and oats ; grass, hay, and pasture land ; with 
elaborate tabular results of various experi- 
ments. We then come to its application to 
horticulture generally, including the kitchen- 
garden, orchard, and flower-garden ; followed 
by various testimonials of its use and effica- 
cious adoptions by the writer. We conclude 
by a single remark — that those who use guano 
without reading this pamphlet will run a great 
risk of doing mischief with an article capable 
of doing much good ; and when the expense 
and difficulty of cartage over the land of more 
bulky manure is taken into the account, it 
must be of the utmost importance that farmers 
and gardeners should be made acquainted with 
the use and abuse of an article which may be 
made subservient to the most distant and 
almost inaccessible lands. 
perennial. Leaves, opposite. The species are 
mostly shrubby climbers, but there is only a 
single native one. 
BRITISH PLANTS. 
THE GENUS CLEMATIS. 
Character. — Involucrum, none, or shaped 
like a calyx. Calyx, petaloid, usually of 
four or five (rarely more) segments, valvate. 
Corolla, none. Carpels, numerous, not burst- 
ing ; terminating in a bending tail. Hoots, 
Clematis Vilalba. 
C. Vitalba, Linnajus — Traveller's Joy. — . 
Stem climbing; leaves pinnate, usually of five 
leaflets ; leaflets heart-shaped, cut ; petioles 
twining ; sepals oblong, downy on both sides ; 
fruit with long feathery arms. This is a very 
vigorous-growing climbing plant, found com- 
monly in hedges, where the soil is calcareous, 
except in the north, where it is rare. The stem 
is woody, deeply furrowed, much branched, 
with deciduous opposite leaves ; the leaflets of 
which are entire, or coarsely serrated, ovate 
acuminate, or heart-shaped, at the base ; the 
petioles act as tendrils, and become hard and 
persistent ; the panicles are forked, many- 
flowered, axillary or terminal, not longer than 
the leaves ; the flowers are whitish, with a 
sweet, almond-like scent, and consist of four 
oblong petaloid sepals, downy on the outside ; 
they are succeeded by numerous carpels, hav- 
ing long, feathery, silky tails, forming pretty 
little tufts, most conspicuous in wet weather. 
The stems climb to the height of twenty or 
thirty feet or more, branching so as to form 
tufts resembling bushes at a distance. It 
flowers in July and August, and the seeds 
ripen in October. The plant is common all 
over the middle and south of Europe in hedged 
and thickets, but always indicating a calca- 
reous soil. It is also found in the Crimea. 
Among other names it bears those of C. tertia, 
C. altera, Vitis syhvstris, V. nigra, and the 
Old Man's Beard, which latter is exceedingly 
appropriate to the white and hairy appearance 
of the tails of the carpels. Because of its deck- 
