CLEMATID.E. The name is derived from Clema, a vine branch, from the climbing properties of the family. The tribe is acrid and poisonous ; the leaves and fresh stem, if bruised and applied to the skin, cause vesication. Griffith notices the virgin's bower in the Tenasseritu Provinces, with simple fleshy leaves. C. Gauriana is abundant among the ruins of Gaur. It forms, with Parana paniculata, extensive lovely festoons. It is the Moriel, the Indian traveller's joy ; is scandent and perennial. It grows all over India, from Dindigul and the Neilgherries up to Dehra Doon, along the foot of the Himalaya. Its flowers are white at the close of the rains, and give out a very strong perfume. It is a hardy plant, and grows in any soil. C. grata, Biliri, HIND., iS a plant of Kaghan and Nepal, and has small yellowish frag,rant flowers ; C. florkla is of Japan. In Franc,e the Clematis vitalba is used by mendicants to cause artificial sores for the furtherance of their impos tures. In Cochin-China, according to Loureiro,
the C. Sinensis is used as a diuretic and diaphoretic. At the Mauritius, the C. Mauritiana is employed to blister the cheek for the relief of toothache.• C. Wightiana, IV. and A., is scandent, perennial, with very soft villous leaves, coarsely serrated. It also is called Moriel, and grows common at Mahabaleshwar and the adjoining ghats, flowering after the rains. Wallich's C. grata, Asiat. Pl. t. 98, much resembles it, and is perhaps identical. Hedges and thickets where these plants grow have the appearance of being covered with hoar-frost, from the white feathery tails of the seeds. They are very ornamental, and worthy of a place iu gardens for trellis work.—Roxb. ; Gr. Cat. ; Riddell ; Mason, p. 671.