1. CLÉMATIS, L. Virgin's-Bower.
Sepals 4, or rarely more, colored, the valvate margins turned inward in the bud. Petals none or small. Achenes numerous in a head, bearing the persistent styles as naked, hairy, or plumose tails.—Perennial herbs or vines, mostly a little woody, and climbing by the bending or clasping of the leaf-stalks, rarely low and erect. Leaves opposite. (Κληματίς, a name of Dioscorides for a climbing plant with long and lithe branches.)
§ 1. FLÁMMULA. Flowers cymose-paniculate, rather small, in our species diœcious. Sepals petaloid, whitish, spreading, thin. Petals none. Anthers short, blunt.
1. C. Virginiàna, L. (Common Virgin's-Bower.) Smooth; leaves bearing 3 ovate acute leaflets, which are cut or lobed, and somewhat heart-shaped at the base; tails of the fruit plumose.—River-banks, etc., common; climbing over shrubs. July, August.
2. C. ligusticifòlia, Nutt. Very similar, but the leaves 5-foliolate or quinate-ternate.—Long Pine, Neb., and west to the Pacific.
§ 2. VIÓRNA. Flowers large, solitary on long peduncles, usually nodding. Sepals thick, erect and connivent at base, mostly dull purple. Petals none. Anthers linear.
[+] Stems climbing; leaves pinnate; calyx (and foliage) glabrous or puberulent.
3. C. Viórna, L. (Leather-Flower.) Calyx ovate and at length bell-shaped; the purplish sepals (1´ long) very thick and leathery, wholly connivent or only the tips recurved; long tails of the fruit very plumose; leaflets 3–7, ovate or oblong, sometimes slightly cordate, 2–3-lobed or entire; uppermost leaves often simple.—Rich soil, Penn. to Mo., and southward. May–Aug.
4. C. Pítcheri, Torr. & Gray. Calyx bell-shaped; the dull purplish sepals with narrow and slightly margined recurved points; tails of the fruit filiform and naked or shortly villous; leaflets 3–9, ovate or somewhat cordate, entire or 3-lobed, much reticulated; uppermost leaves often simple.—S. Ind. to Kan., and Tex. June.
5. C. críspa, L. Calyx cylindraceous below, the upper half of the bluish-purple sepals (1–2´ long) dilated and widely spreading, with broad and wavy thin margins; tails of the fruit silky or glabrate; leaflets 5–9, thin, varying from ovate or cordate to lanceolate, entire or 3–5-parted. (C. cylindrica, Sims.)—Va. near Norfolk, and southward. May–Aug.