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Hence, perhaps, it is that the petioles have acquired a high degree of sensitiveness as a compensation for the little power of movement in the shoots. The petioles are bowed downwards, and have the same general hook-like form as in C. viticella. The medial petiole and the lateral sub- petioles are sensitive, especially the much bent terminal portion.
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.
Clematis viticella, var. venosa. In this and the two following species the power of spirally twining is completely lost, and this seems due to the lessened flexibility of the internodes and to the interference caused by the large size of the leaves. But the revolving movement, though restricted, is not lost.
Hence it should be made a rule to sow these seeds also, at least when those of the true representatives of the novelty do not give seed enough for a rapid multiplication. Other dwarfs are recorded to have sprung from species in the same sudden and unexpected manner, as for instance Ageratum coeruleum of the same nursery, further Clematis Viticella nana and Acer campestre nanum.
In C. montana it is confined to the main petiole, and has not spread to the sub-petioles of the three leaflets; so it is with young plants of C. calycina, but in older plants it spreads to the three sub-petioles. In C. viticella the sensitiveness has spread to the petioles of the seven leaflets, and to the subdivisions of the basi-lateral sub- petioles.
The shoots, when placed near a vertical stick, either twine round it, or clasp it with the basal portions of their petioles. The leaves whilst young are nearly of the same shape as those of C. viticella, and act in the same manner like a hook, as will be described under that species.
I discovered this movement too late to be enabled to observe it in the other species; but from analogy I can hardly doubt that the leaves of at least C. viticella, C. flammula, and C. vitalba move spontaneously; and, judging from C Sieboldi, this probably is the case with C. montana and C. calycina. I ascertained that the simple leaves of C. glandulosa exhibited no spontaneous revolving movement.
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