[VIRGIN sb. 11.] The British climbing shrub Clematis Vilalba, traveller’s joy.

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1597.  Gerarde, Herbal, II. cccxiii. 741. Vpright Clamberer or Virgins Bower, is also a kinde of Clematis.

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1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. 68/2. The Virgins Bower groweth like the Honysuckle.

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1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 500. Traveller’s-joy. Great Wild Climber. Virgin’s Bower.

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1818.  Keats, Endym., II. 417. Virgin’s bower, trailing airily.

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1842.  Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), III. 36. The twisting or bending back of the petioles over any horizontal body,… as in the Virgin’s bower.

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1870.  Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 261. And woodbine, and the odorous virgin’s bower, Hung in great heaps about that undyked tower.

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  b.  Applied to other species of Clematis, esp. to the American species C. virginiana, or employed as book-name for the whole genus.

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1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., II. iv. § 6. 111. Clematis, Virgins-bower.

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1753.  Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Virgins Bower,… in botany, the name of a genus of plants;… The flower is of the rosaceous kind.

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1760.  J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 331. Virgin’s Bower, Clematis.

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1771.  J. R. Forster, Flora Amer. Septentr., 25. Clematis viorna. Virgin’s bower, violet. Virg. Car.

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1845–50.  Mrs. Lincoln, Lect. Bot., 65. One of our most beautiful climbing plants is the Clematis virginica, or virgin’s bower.

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1856.  Delamer, Fl. Garden (1861), 158. Virgin’s Bower—Clematis montana, Viticella, and its varieties, are hardy climbers, pretty when trained over lattice-work.

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1866.  Whittier, Maids of Attitash, 15.

        Hardhack, and virgin’s bower,
And white-spiked clethra-flower.

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1880.  Bessey, Bot., 564. Clematis, the Virgin’s Bower, of many species.

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  c.  With distinguishing terms.

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1704.  Dict. Rust. (1726), s.v., The Purple Virgin’s-Bower…. The Double-purple Virgin’s-Bower.

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1707.  Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 190. Double Virgins Bower is a climbing Tree, fit to cover some place of Repose.

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1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Clematitis, Purple creeping Climber, or Single Virgins Bower. Ibid. Blue Climber with a double Flower, or Double Virgins Bower.

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1822.  Hortus Anglicus, II. 39. Clematis Cirrhosa. Evergreen Virgin’s Bower.

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1862.  Chambers’s Encycl., III. 73/2. Clematis flammula, a native of the south of Europe and north of Africa,… is the species known as Sweet Virgin’s Bower.

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