Clematis × vedrariensis Vilm.

A vigorous deciduous climber probably 20 ft high, with ribbed, downy young shoots. Leaves composed of three leaflets borne on a downy common stalk 1 to 2 in. long. Leaflets shortly stalked, ovate, pointed, rounded or broadly wedge-shaped at the base, often three-lobed, always more or less coarsely toothed; 1 to 21⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. wide, the terminal one always the largest; upper surface dull purplish green and furnished with pale hairs especially on the veins and midrib; lower surface paler and much more hairy, especially when young. Flowers springing from the leaf-axils on one-flowered, slender, hairy stalks up to 5 in. long. They are 2 to 21⁄2 in. wide; the sepals four, sometimes five or six, spreading, roundish-oval with a short point, 3⁄4 to 1 in. wide, delicate rose; the conspicuous cluster of stamens yellow.

A hybrid raised by Messrs Vilmorin at Verrières-le-Buisson, near Paris, from C. montana var. rubens crossed with chrysocoma. It was first exhibited by that firm in flower at the May meeting of the National Horticultural Society of France in 1914. It is quite hardy at Kew, where it grows and flowers well from May onwards. It inherits much of the downiness of chrysocoma, but the habit is that of montana var. rubens.