The hepatica or liverwort, the varieties of which look so pretty in our gardens in spring, was formerly considered to be a species of Anemone, and indeed the genus Hepatica appears to rest on very slight grounds. It has, however, been adopted by most modern botanists, and the _Anemone Hepatica_ of Linnæus is now generally called _Hepatica triloba_. The normal form of the species is the single blue; and the double blue, the single and double pink, and the single and double white, are all only varieties of this. The hepatica agrees in all points with the Anemone, except in the involucre, which is so very like a green calyx, from the manner in which it enfolds the flower in the bud, as scarcely to be distinguished. I could not, indeed, be persuaded that this calyx-like covering was an involucre, till I turned back the apparent sepals, and found that their glossy surface was within: I also found that there was a very small portion of the stem between them and the flower, a circumstance which always distinguishes an involucre from a calyx, the latter forming part of the flower, and being always in some manner attached to the receptacle. THE GENUS CLEMATIS. This genus resembles the Anemone in having only one covering, an ornamental calyx, to its seed-producing organs. It has not, however, any distinct involucre; though in one species, _C. calycina_, there are two bracts, or floral leaves, which bear some resemblance to one. The flowers of the different species vary considerably in form, colour, and the number of the sepals; _C. calycina_ and _C. viticella_ having four, _C. florida_ six, _C. vitalba_ five, &c. All the species agree, however, in the seeds, which are produced singly, each in a separate awned carpel, which does not open, but drops with the seed, and is sown with it. These carpels, which are common to the genera Ranunculus, Anemone, Adonis, and many other kinds of Ranunculaceæ, are called caryopsides, and seeds thus enclosed are always much longer in coming up than any others. In some species of Clematis the awns of the carpels are smooth; but in others they are bearded or feathered, as in those of the traveller’s joy (_C. vitalba_), shown in _fig._ 7. The leaves of the Clematis vary considerably in form and arrangement; but the stems of the climbing species are furnished with tendrils, or slender twining leafless stems, which some botanists suppose to be metamorphosed leaves. [Illustration: FIG. 7.—CARPELS OF THE CLEMATIS VITALBA.]