Book  (Oct 2001)  Page(s) 20, 191.  Includes photo(s).
 
Page 20: of all the Clematis species introduced into Europe during the eighteenth century, C. florida appears to have caused the greatest flutter... [according to Evison and Johnson] the herbarium specimen held in the University of Uppsala is not typical of C. florida but bears close resemblance to an unnamed poor form of C. 'Sieboldii'
Page 191: [PHOTO]

Book  (Sep 2000)  Page(s) 120-123.  

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 235.  
 
...native of Japan and China...greenish white turning to cream and stamens are purple.

Book  (Apr 1998)  Page(s) 7, 9.  
 
Page 7: C. florida
... flat white flowers... from China...
Page 9:
China boasts at least 108 species and they vary considerably from C. armandii [to] C. florida [to] the most important species of all, C. patens...
Page 10:
[large-flowered] cultivars are probably all descendants of C. patens and C. florida...

Book  (1965)  Page(s) 442.  
 
11. Clematis florida Thunb. Anemone japonica Houtt.; C. hakonensis Fr. & Sav. - Tessen. Slightly pubescent, often glabrate woody herb; stems scandent, slender; leaves petiolate, 1 or 2 times ternate, the median primary petiolules longer than the lateral, the ultimate leaflets ovate to narrowly so, usually entire, rather chartaceous, 2-4 cm. long, 1-2 cm. wide, acute; peduncles 1-flowered, solitary on the axils, about 10 cm. long, with a pair of leaflike simple bracts near middle; flowers white, large, 5-8 cm. across; sepals usually 6, spreading, ovate, acute, with a longitudinal band of soft short dense pubescence on each side externally; anthers linear, 3-5 mm. long, the filaments linear, about twice as long as the anthers, glabrous, blackened when dry; carpels silky. - May-June. Chinese plant long grown as an ornamental in our area; several cultivars are known.
 

Magazine  (Jul 1937)  Page(s) 105-106.  
 
Le docteur Savatier découvrit cette plante sur les collines de Hakones, île de Nippon (Japon). MM. Franchet et Savatier la décrivent dans leur « Enumération des plantes du Japon », la désignant sous le nom de Clématis hakonensis, du lieu de sa découverte, elle fut introduite vers 1860.
A cette époque fleurissait pour la première fois dans les cultures de MM. Jackman et fils, de Woking, un hybride provenant du croisement du C. Lanuginosa, par le C. Hendersoni, puis par C. Viticella atrarubens opéré en 1858. Mr Lavallée, vit dans la plante japonaise, introduite en dernier lieu, une ressemblance si parfaite avec l’hybride obtenu par MM. Jackman et fils, qu’il déclara que celui-ci était identique au type japonais, met tant en doute son origine hybride, car bien contrairement aux hybrides en général, il garde une remarquable constance dans ses caractères.
Quoi qu’il en soit en horticulture, le nom de C. Hakonensis ne servit pas couramment, on conserva celui de C. Jackmani.

Book  (1912)  Page(s) 84.  
 
Clematis L. — N. Pff. iii. 2. 62. — Ranunculaceæ-Clematideæ.
florida Thunb. — DC. i. 8;  B. M. t. 834; Schneider, Hdb. Laubh. i. 286. — Japan. — ♄ §.  April-May.

Website/Catalog  (1909)  Page(s) 75.  
 
Clematis florida, fine white single - per 10, $1.50

Book  (1906)  Page(s) 57.  
 
Clematis Florida.  Japan.  1776.  10 feet.  Flowers large, spreading, white; peduncles one-flowered, longer than the leaves. The leaves are either ternate or bi-ternate, with small ovate, lance0shaped leaflets.  April to September.  Syn. C. Fortunei (Hort).
A rather slender climber, which has been nearly ousted out of cultivation by the more modern varieties and hybrids.  (Florida type).

Magazine  (26 Jul 1902)  Page(s) Vol. 32, p. 51-52.  Includes photo(s).
 
THE WILD FORMS OF CLEMATIS FLORIDA, C. PATENS; &c.
Clematis florida (fig. 20), Thunb., and C. patens, Morren et Decaisne, were introduced into this country from gardens in Japan, and were at first considered to be distinct species, the differences between them being supposed to be as follows:—
C. florida: leaves bi-ternate, sepals white and touching or overlapping, peduncle with two leafy bracts.
C. patens: leaves simply ternate, sepals blue not touching at the edge, peduncle ebracteate.
Among the cultivated specimens of these collected in Japan and now preserved at Kew, I find that bi-ternate leaves occur occasionally in C. patens. Both Franchet and Maximowicz assert that the peduncles of this form are occasionally braeteate (in the Kew herbarium all the specimens of C. patens are ebracteate). The colour of flowers is of little importance in cultivated specimens, as regards species-making, and the ordinary form of C. patens is whitish. The closeness of the sepals is also variable. All the assumed distinctions break down, and Kuntze was evidently correct in referring both forms to C. florida, Thunberg, which is the oldest name. In this he has been followed by Matsumura, who reduces to this species also the following forms : C Sieboldi, Don, C. hakonensis, Franchet et Savatier, and C. cœrulea, Lindley. The latter is the form of C. patens, with violet-blue flowers, simply ternate leaves, and ebracteate peduncles. All the cultivated kinds seem always to have leaves with entire margins, but the bracts are occasionally incised.
C. hakonensis, Franchet et Savatier, which was found in hedges in a very cultivated district in Japan, has simply ternate leaves with entire margins, bi-bracteate peduncles, and sepals four or five in number. This plant, although doubted by Kuntze as being truly wild, is accepted apparently by Matsumura as the wild form of C. florida occurring in Japan. There is no specimen of it at Kew, but, as will be seen, it differs considerably from the wild plant found by me in China.
Several varieties of C. florida are cultivated in China, but they have apparently never been introduced into Europe, and I am unable to say whether or not the Japanese obtained any of their cultivated forms from China. In the great Chinese flora, the Chih Wu Ming, xxvii., folio 9, there is a very imperfect figure of the T'ieh-hsien-lien, the name which is also given to Clematis florida in Japan. This Chinese name signifies " Iron- wire Lily," and the author says the plant is so-called from the resemblance of its fine stems to iron-wire. Lien is a word applied by the Chinese to many plants with large, beautiful flowers, as Nelumbium, Nymphæa, Magnolia, &c, and in its wide -spread application to plants not botanically allied, resembles our own word Lily in popular usage. The author speaks of the plant as cultivated; it is trained by the Chinese over bamboo trellises.
In the same Chinese work, xxi., folio 48, there is a good figure of a twiner called Chuan-tze-lien, which I venture to translate as Twining Lily. It occurs at Yao-chou, near the Poyang lake, on the banks of streams, and is considered by the author to be a wild plant. It has large simply ternate leaves, with entire margins; the peduncles have two large ovate bracts. Two flowers are shown, one with five, the other with six sepals. It is a form of C. patens, and if truly wild is a remarkable form. The venation of the leaves is very peculiar in the figure ; there are several veins almost parallel, and such do not occur in the species in any known specimens.
What I consider to be the wild form of C. florida is represented in the Kew herbarium by my numbers 791, 1398, and 3516. These specimens were collected in Hupeh, in two localities, at Patung and Ichang, but the figure now given is taken from those gathered near Ichang on the banks of the An-an-miao stream, a tributary of the Yangtse. The plant was found there creeping over the surface of the ground amidst the grass, and it only attains very moderate dimensions. It has always bi-ternate leaves, variable in shape. The leaflets have margins which are sometimes entire, and sometimes serrate or crenate-serrate towards the apex. The peduncles are axillary, 4 or 5 inches long, and provided below the middle with a pair of bracts which are variable in shape and margin like the leaflets. The sepals vary in number (4, 5 and 6) and are pure white, except for three slightly green nerves which are conspicuous on the outer surface. The sepals are occasionally lobed, and this feature and their variable number are interesting, showing a tendency to variation already established in the wild state. The sepals are like those of cultivated C. florida ; indeed, in a Nagasaki cultivated specimen in the herbarium, which shows flowers of different sizes, one of them is precisely like the flowers of my wild plant in every respect. The stamens are black in the Ichang plant. Watters sent specimens to Hance from Ichang, which are referred to C. patens in the Index Flora Sinensis, i. p. 6. They are evidently the same as my wild plant.
There are also specimens from Kiukiang and the Taihoo Lake, wild plants which have been put in the C. florida bundle at Kew. They differ considerably from my plant, as the stamens are white and the sepals narrower.
Clematis Hancockiana, Maximowicz, which was collected by Hancock on the hills close to the city of Ningpo, is considered by Kuntze to be a form of C. florida. I consider it to be a different species, as the leaves are different in texture from those of my wild plant, and the sepals are lanceolate and reflexed. It is closely allied, having bi-bracteate peduncles.
Clematis Sieboldi, Don, is figured in Paxton, Magazine of Botany, iv., 147. It is a form of C. florida, with ternate leaves. The sepals are cream-coloured, and show the three green nerves, which occur in the wild Ichang plant.
Clematis patens var. Sophia, depicted in Flore des Serres, t. 852, has a longitudinal greenish band through the centre of each sepal, which replaces the original three green nerves.

Clematis Jackmani x .
This garden Clematis was published by Moore, in the Florist and Pomologist, for 1864, p. 193, and the statement is there made that it was produced by Jackman fertilising C. lanuginosa with two varieties of C. viticella, namely, Hendersoni and atro-rubens. It would then appear that C. Jackmani is a cross between varieties of the two wild species, florida and viticella.
Lavallee in Les Clematites a grandes fleurs, 1884, p. 11, tab. iv., gives a description and figure of a Clematis, which he considers to be C. hakonensis, Fr. et Sav. He states that it made its appearance in gardens in 1860, when it was sold as C. viticella violacea, C. patens rubra, &c, and that some time afterwards its varieties received the names of Jackmani, rubella, purpurea hybrida, &c.
Lavallee's figure, however, differs considerably from the plant found by Savatier in Japan, which was published in 1879, by Franchet and Savatier as C. hakonensis. It is probable, then, that Lavallee's figure represents a Clematis of garden origin, a hybrid, and it has nothing to do with true hakonensis. There is no reason for supposing that the account of the hybrid origin of Jackmani is incorrect. The Gard. Chron. for 1864, p. 823, gives a figure of Jackmani, and confirms Moore's history of its production by Jackman. A very good figure of it is also given in L' Illustration Horticole for 1864, planche 414. Augustine Henry.
The late Prof. Decaisne held the same opinions as M. Lavallee as to the origin of this plant. Our supplementary illustration shows a fine group of these plants, arranged by Messrs. Jackman of Woking, who have done so much to introduce and popularise these beautiful plants. Ed.]