121 oonrvdZiVULES. no. ss. 



and attenuated above. — Stem procumbent or climbing, 

 round, purplish, from three to twelve feet long, some- 

 times branched — Leaves cordate at the base, broad, 

 alternate, petiolate, margin entire or undulate, or 

 lobed on the sides like a fiddle, ver}^ sharp, but hard- 

 ly acuminate, smooth, deep green above, pale green 

 below. 



Flowers in fascicles of two to six, on long pedun- 

 cles, longer than the petioles, and axillary, pedicels un- 

 equal. Calix with five unequal segments, ovate ob- 



r 



tuse, concave, mutic, two smaller opposite outside 

 Corolla large, funnel shaped, about two or three in- 

 ches long, and as broad above, base tubulose, color 

 white or incarnate or purplish. Stamina white, fila- 

 ments filiform, unequal, inclosed, anthers oblong. 

 Style white, filiform, stigma bipartite, segments li- 

 near. Capsule oblong, >vilh two cells and four seeds. 

 HISTORY — A great botanical confusion had arisen 

 in this genus, and the natural tribe of Volvulides or 

 Convolvuiaceay of which it is the type. The genera 

 of this family had not been well fixed, and Ipomea 

 particularly was so little distinguished from Co^ivol- 

 Villus that many species were considered as belonging 

 to both ! It is now ascertained (as I pointed out in a 

 dissertation published in 1820) that the inequality of 

 the stamina is the principal character of the family, 

 and that Ipomea is distinguished, not by the variable 

 corolla, but by the trilocular capsul and capitate or 

 trilobe stigma. Both genera contain a multitude of 

 species, many of which are medical, such as C Sea- 



mania, C. iurpeihum^ C.jalapa, kc. which are all 

 iJrastic or cathartic. 



