Clem a tis. 
243 
“ Round him grew 
All tendrils green, of every bloom and hue, 
Together intertwined, and trammel’d fresh: 
The vine of glossy sprout; the ivy-mesh, 
Shading its Ethiop berries; and woodbine 
Of velvet leaves, and bugle blooms divine; 
Convolvulus in streaked vases flush; 
The creeper mellowing for an Autumn blush; 
And virgin’s-bower, trailing airily, 
With other's of the sisterhood.” 
The profusion of elegant sweet-scented blossom with which 
the clematis decks itself during the sunny summer, as the 
autumn approaches gradually gives place to long, feathery, 
downy seeds, and these, in graceful pensile tufts, hang like 
drapery on the autumnal hedges, enlivening the roadsides long 
after flowers have vanished—not unfrequently remaining until 
the commencement of December. It seems unjust that so 
welcome a plant, which lingers so lovingly with us long after 
all its floral friends have sought the land of shadows, should 
be deemed the representative of artifice ; but the florigraphists 
have so willed it, and by their decision we must abide. The 
long feathery down attached to the seeds is made use of by 
field-mice to render their nests soft and warm, and hence they 
are frequently found at the entrance to their holes, where 
“ Oft the little mouse, 
Eludes our hopes, and, safely lodged below, 
Hath formed his granaries. ” 
