ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
By Professor James Buckman, F.G.S., F.L.S., &c. 
(Continued from p . 561.) 
The plants to which we shall now devote attention are 
those of the following genera : 
1. Clematis, belonging to the sub-order Clematidece. 
C Z. Anemone, belonging to the sub-order Anemoniece . 
3. Helleborus, belonging to the sub-order ilelleboridece. 
The genus Clematis, according to Britten and Holland, is 
known by the following rustic names :— te Bedwine, beggar- 
brushes, belly-wind, bethwine, bindwith, ballbind, climber, 
crocodile, devil’s cut.* 
The reasons for some of these names are sufficiently ob¬ 
vious, but others are less so. 
Our only native species, the Clematis vitalba , derives this 
title from the Greek name for a plant of similar habit, 
K\niuaTVQ from /cAr^m, a tendril, and vitis alba , or white 
vine. It is well known as a climbing shrub in our hedges 
and thickets, especially on calcareous soils. Its finely 
formed leaves and scented white flowers make it a favourite, 
so much so, that it is called by some, virgins’ bower, and as its 
feathered seeds ripen a white hazy mass is seen, which has 
caused our countrymen to call it old man’s beard, 
while boys, who smoke the wood in the same way as they 
do the cane, call it honey-stick, of which, perhaps, the name 
it is often called by in Gloucestershire—honesty, is but a 
corruption. 
Its liking for calcareous soils is well seen from its paucity 
in the middle of the London basin, where for a distance of 
ten miles from St. Paul’s it is very seldom met with, but 
once get on the chalk edges of that basin, as at Maidenhead, 
it is abundant. On the oolites of Gloucestershire, and on 
the same rocks in Dorsetshire, it abounds to such an 
extent as to be indeed little better than a weed in the 
hedge-rows. 
We copy the following folk-lore of the plant from Mrs. 
Lankester : 
“ Common Travellers’ Joy, or Old Man’s Beard.—The 
scientific name, Clematis vitalba, is derived from kA ri/xa 
# See ‘A Dictionary of English Plant Names,’ by the authors quoted. 
This is a most useful work, which should be in the hands of all lovers of 
plants. 
LII. 
45 
