Part 7

This handsome vine is sparingly leafy, somewhat branching, and not perfectly round; it is woody-fibred and breaks easily, smooth to the touch, and slightly shining; the color is a light brown of a golden hue.

The leaf is 3-parted, each leaflet upon a slender foot-stem; the leaflets are oval or wedge-shaped, the margin either irregularly cut, or deeply notched, or nearly entire; the many ribs and netted veins show; the texture is somewhat thin, and the surface is sparingly covered--particularly on the underside--by soft hairs. The color is light green, frequently running into red- or purple-bronze hues, especially when young. The leaves are set on long purplish or reddish stems, and arranged in pairs, at a considerable distance apart, along the lithe curving stalk.

The flower is large; its 4 calyx-parts look like petals: they are long oval, with pointed tips, of a particularly thin, loose texture, and have a very downy surface both inside and out; the many veins show distinctly; the color is a light purple of a broken tint, sometimes nearly white on the inner side. The stamens are many and crowded into a close central tuft, the outer row of them shaped like slender oblong petals; in color, green-white with light green-yellow tips. The single blossom is set on a slender green stem which springs from between the leaves.

The flower seldom spreads wide, its seeming petals curve inward in a deep cup-shape. A noticeable feature is the presence of the brown and dry leaf-stems of the last year’s growth standing out at right angles to the fresh leafage. This is one of the rarer plants, and therefore should be left where it grows, with free curves clinging to the rocks or swinging its violet-tinged greenery and purple bells from the stronger growth of a neighboring shrub.

*Clematis.* Clematis Virginiana. *Virgin’s Bower.* *Traveller’s Joy.*

Found through July and August climbing over wayside thickets and along river banks.

The stalk of this charming vine is leafy, round, tough-fibred, and grooved, and rather slender. It is green in color, tinged more or less with dull bronzy purple.

The large leaf is compound of 3 leaflets, that are oval with a long, tapering point, and a slightly heart-shaped base; the margin is cut into a few large notches, and occasionally is lobed; the ribs are strong, the texture firm, and the surface is smooth. Each leaflet is set on a short curved stem; the leaves, on their long stems, are placed opposite each other. In color they are dark green.

The flowers are of two kinds, the pistil-bearing blossoms and the stamen-bearing occur on separate plants. The flower of both plants has 4 petal-like calyx-parts, of oblong shape with rounded tips; the color is greenish white; the stamens and pistils are pale green. The flowers grow on short light green stems, in branching clusters from the angles of the leaves and the end of the vine.

The Clematis climbs by means of its leaf-stems, which grow in strong deep curves; it sometimes hooks them over a support, and again clasps them more securely by twisting the stem once or twice around. It is what Ruskin calls a “gadding vine,” for it runs riot over stone wall and hedge, stretching out a social hand to every wayside shrub, and swinging its flowery festoons from dry twig to leafy sapling. The green of the leafage is agreeably varied by the purple-bronzy leaves of the new growths; and the silvery feathery seeds, following the pistil-bearing blossoms in September and October, are quite as beautiful as the flower, and have a faint, delightful fragrance of their own.

BARBERRY FAMILY.

BERBERIDACEÆ.

*Barberry.* Berberis vulgaris.

Found on hilly pastures, in roadside thickets, during May and June.

A shrub, which grows from 3 to 5 or more feet in height, and branches thickly; it is armed with many needle-like spines, and the bark is gray.

The leaf is a small oval with a rounded tip, its edge beset with many short sharp spines; its fibre is tough, and surface very smooth, and the color is a light bluish-green. The arrangement is in rosette-like groups of 5 or more leaves.

The small flower has 6 rounding, concave, yellow petals, a 6-parted calyx, and 6 stamens which curve outward from the circular green pistil and rest their tips in the hollows of the petals. The flowers grow in drooping clusters, hanging from the leafy rosettes all along the ends of the branches with a graceful gesture.

The fruit, ripe in September and October, is an oval red berry, sour and puckering to the taste. The wood is a strong yellow color, and the roots gleam in the freshly turned soil like pieces of gold in the dark earth. In some parts of the country the berries are made into a preserve, and the wood is used for dyeing.

*Mandrake.* Podophyllum peltatum. *May Apple.*

Found in woodlands during May and June.

The single stalk, 14 to 18 inches in height, bears upon its summit a pair of great leaves on forking stems; it is large, round, very hard and fibrous, juicy, smooth, and somewhat glossy; a dry, tough, pale sheath enwraps it at the foot. In color it is a very light green, almost white.

The leaves are almost a foot across and nearly circular in shape, divided into 5 or 9 wedge-shaped radiating parts which are often 2- (or more) lobed, and with as many main ribs as there are divisions; all the lesser ribs and veins are conspicuous in these highly ornamental leaves--they have shallow but sharp-pointed margins, and are rather thin in texture, smooth and glossy, and of a rich dark green color, whitened with bloom underneath. The stems are large and pale.

The flower is formed of several wedge-shaped petals (6 to 9), firm and thick of texture, showing many fine-netted veins, and dull white in color; they spread and curve about the base of the prominent greenish seed-box, the large and conspicuous stamens forming a ring in the center. The flower, on a pale stem, grows from between the leaf-stems with a distinct inclination to one side.

In bud the flower is enfolded by 3 temporary bracts,--the 6 calyx-parts also fall when the petals expand. The long rather oval fruit is found eatable by the uncritical palates of children.

Leaf about ⅓ life size.]

WATER-LILY FAMILY.

NYMPHÆACEÆ.

*Yellow Pond-Lily.* Nuphar advena. *Cow Lily.* *Spatter-dock.*