Magazine  (24 May 1879)  Page(s) 665.  
 
Clematis Willisoni. — By this post we have the pleasure of sending you a flower of Clematis Willisoni remarkably double.  This was one of the last productions, in the way of hybridising, of the late William Willison of Whitby, after whom it is named.  The "doubleness" of the flowers is not certain, some coming single, some semi-double, and some fully double, like the one we send you, but the better the plant is grown the more double flowers there are.  But whether as giving double or single flowers it is a beautiful plant, from the profusion and size of the flowers, as well as from the beautiful shade of lavender-mauve which they take on.  It is also wonderfully free-flowering, the blossom we send you being one of about forty fully expanded flowers borne by a plant in a 12-inch pot in a cool greenhouse.  Jas. Backhouse & Sons, Nurseries, York.

[The flower sent is a very handsome double one, similar to that sent us by Mr. Willison himself some years ago, and described in our volume for 1875 (n.s., iv., 17). Eds.]

Magazine  (Aug 1875)  Page(s) 191.  
 
Amongst the meritorious novelties of the season, Clematis Willisoni, from Mr. Willison, of Whitby, may be specially noted.  It is a double-flowered variety of the type of Countess of Lovelace, though considerably paler in colour, having large guard-sepals, eight in number, resembling those of the ordinary single-flowering sorts, and filled in the centre with a tuft of shorter and smaller sepals replacing the stamens.  These smaller sepals, which are somewhat spathulate in figure, with a short acuminate apex, become narrowed at the base into a claw, which is shorter in the lower and about half an inch long in the upper series, the tuft consisting of about five tiers of these petaloid organs.  The colour of the guard sepals ins a delicate mauve, deepening to a full mauve at the base, as seen when the inner petal-like bodies are removed, these latter being of a delicate mauve-lilac or silver-grey, which is the tone of colour generally evident in the flower.  The flowers, which Mr. Willison states are sometimes 8 inches to 10 inches across, and quite full, are intermediate in colour between the bluish Countess of Lovelace and the pale lavender-tinted Belle of Woking, coming near the hue of Lady Londesborough and Albert Victor.

Magazine  (3 Jul 1875)  Page(s) 17-8.  
 
We have received from Mr. Willison, of Whitby, a flower of his Clematis Willsoni, which is a double-flowered variety of the type of Countess of Lovelace, but considerably paler in colour.  It has large guard sepals eight in number, resembling those of the ordinary single-flowered sorts, and in the centre is a tuft of shorter and smaller sepals replacing the stamens.  These smaller sepals, which are somewhat spathulate in figure, with a short acuminate apex, become narrowed at the base into a claw, which is shorter in the lower and about half an inch long in the upper series, the tuft consisting of about five tiers of these petaloid organs.  The colour of the guard sepals ins a delicate mauve, deepening to a full mauve at the base, as seen when the inner petal-like bodies are removed, these latter being of a delicate mauve-lilac or silver-grey, which is the tone of colour generally evident in the flower.  The flowers, which Mr. Willison states are sometimes 8 inches to 10 inches across, and quite full, are intermediate in colour between the bluish Countess of Lovelace and the pale lavender-tinted Belle of Woking, and of the same type as the former, while the colour is near that of Lady Londesborough and Albert Victor.