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.