Clematis


CLEMATIS ALPINA (_syn Atragene alpina, A. austriaca_ and _A.

siberica_).--Europe and North America. This is a climbing species with

bi-ternately divided leaves, and large flowers with four blue sepals

and ten to twelve small flattened organs, which are usually termed

petals.



C. CIRRHOSA.--Evergreen Virgin's Bower. Spain, 1596. An interesting,

early-flowering species. The flowers, which are greenish-white,
are

produced in bunches and very effective. It is an evergreen species, of

comparative hardihood, and flowers well in sheltered situations.



C. FLAMMULA.--Virgin's Bower. France, 1596. This old and well-known

plant is quite hardy in this country. The leaves are pinnate, and the

flowers white and fragrant. C. Flammula rubro-marginata is a worthy and

beautiful-leaved variety.



C. FLORIDA.--Japan, 1776. This is a beautiful species, and an old

inhabitant of English gardens. Leaves composed of usually three

oval-shaped leaflets, and unusually bright of tint. The flowers are

very large, and pure white. It should be planted in a warm sheltered

corner against a wall.



C. GRAVEOLENS.--This is a dwarf shrub, with neatly tripinnate leaves,

and solitary, strongly-scented yellow flowers of medium size. A native

of Chinese Tartary, and quite hardy.



C. LANUGINOSA.--China, 1851. A handsome species, with large purple

leaves that are hairy on the under sides. Flowers pale blue or lilac,

very large, and composed of six or eight spreading sepals. C.

lanuginosa pallida has immense flowers, often fully half a foot in

diameter. Flowers in June.



C. MONTANA.--Nepaul, 1831. This is valuable on account of its flowering

in May. It is a free-growing species, with trifoliolate leaves on long

footstalks, and large white flowers. C. montana grandiflora is a

beautiful variety, having large white flowers so abundantly produced as

to hide the foliage. It is quite hardy and of rampant growth.



C. PATENS (_syns C. caerulea_ and _C. azurea grandiflora_).--Japan,

1836. This has large, pale-violet flowers, and is the parent of many

single and double flowered forms. The typical form is, however, very

deserving of cultivation, on account of the freedom with which it

blooms during June and July from the wood of the previous year. It is

perfectly hardy even in the far north.



C. VIORNA.--Leather Flower. United States. This is a showy,

small-flowered species, the flowers being campanulate, greenish-white

within and purplish without. C. Viorna coccinea is not yet well known,

but is one of the prettiest of the small-flowered section. The flowers,

which are leathery as in the species, are of a beautiful vermilion on

the outside and yellow within.



C. VITALBA.--Lady's Bower, or Old Man's Beard. A handsome native climbing

shrub, common in limestone or chalky districts, and unusually abundant

in the southern English counties. Clambering over some neglected fence,

often to nearly 20 feet in height, this vigorous-growing plant is seen

to best advantage, the three or five-lobed leaves and festoons of

greenish-white, fragrant flowers, succeeded by the curious and attractive

feathery carpels, render the plant one of the most distinct and desirable

of our native wildlings flowering in August.



C. VITICELLA.--Spain, 1569. This is a well-known species of not too

rampant growth, and a native of Spain and Italy. The flowers vary a

good deal in colour, but in the typical plant they are reddish-purple

and produced throughout the summer. Crossed with C. lanuginosa, this

species has produced many ornamental and beautiful hybrids, one of the

finest and most popular being C. Jackmanii.



C. WILLIAMSI (_syn C. Fortunei_).--Japan, 1863. The fragrant, white

flowers of this species are semi-double, and consist of about 100

oblong-lanceolate sepals narrowed to the base. The leathery leaves are

trifoliolate with heart-shaped leaflets. It proves quite hardy, and has

several varieties.



GARDEN VARIETIES.--As well as the above there are many beautiful garden

hybrids, some of which in point of floral colouring far outvie the

parent forms. Included in the following list are a few of the most

beautiful kinds:--



Alba Victor.

Alexandra.

Beauty of Worcester.

Belle of Woking.

Blue Gem.

Duchess of Edinburgh.

Edith Jackman.

Fairy Queen.

John Gould Veitch.

Lady Bovill.

Lord Beaconsfield.

Lucie Lemoine.

Madame Baron Veillard.

Miss Bateman.

Mrs. A. Jackman.

Othello.

Prince of Wales.

Rubella.

Star of India.

Stella.

Venus Victrix.

William Kennett.



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