_Clematis virginiana_
_Flowers_--White and greenish, about 1 in. across or less, in loose
clusters from the axils. Calyx of 4 or 5 petal-like sepals; no petals;
stamens and pistils numerous, of indefinite number; the staminate and
pistillate flowers on separate plants; the styles feathery, and more
than 1 in. long in fruit. _Stem:_ Climbing, slightly woody. _Leaves:_
Opposite, slender petioled, divided into 3 pointed and 2 widely toothed
or lobed leaflets.
_Preferred Habitat_--Climbing over woodland borders, thickets, roadside
shrubbery, fences, and walls; rich, moist soil.
_Flowering Season_--July-September.
_Distribution_--Georgia and Kansas northward; less common beyond the
Canadian border.
Charles Darwin, who made so many interesting studies of the power of
movement in various plants, devoted special attention to the clematis
clan, of which about one hundred species exist; but, alas! none to our
traveller’s joy, that flings out the right hand of good fellowship to
every twig within reach, winds about the sapling in brotherly embrace,
drapes a festoon of flowers from shrub to shrub, hooks even its
sensitive leafstalks over any available support as it clambers and riots
on its lovely way. By rubbing the footstalk of a young leaf with a twig
a few times on any side, Darwin found a clematis leaf would bend to that
side in the course of a few hours, but return to the straight again if
nothing remained on which to hook itself.
In early autumn, when the long, silvery, decorative plumes attached to a
ball of seeds form feathery, hoary masses even more fascinating than the
flower clusters, the name of old man’s beard is most suggestive. These
seeds never open, but, when ripe, each is borne on the autumn gales, to
sink into the first moist, springy resting place.