MORNING-GLORY FAMILY 



If the Hedge Bindweed could think it would cer- 

 tainly conclude that wire fences were made for its 

 especial delectation; at any rate it uses them, and one 

 finds long stretches of fence transformed into a leafy 

 wall by this delicate vine which holds out its pink and 

 white bells into the sunshine with grace and charm. 



The vine has an efficient way 

 of finding a support, after the 

 method of all vines. It lifts its 

 growing tip into the air so that 

 it may swing in a circle, and as 

 soon as this tip catches a sup- 

 port it makes fast; soon one of 

 the arrow-shaped leaves man- 

 ages to get an ear over, and in 

 a short time the vine has a hold. 

 The stem twines and winds in 

 the direction of the hands of the 

 clock, right under, left over. 



Enveloping the base of the 

 flower-bell are two large bracts, 

 each keeled down the centre, 

 and these conceal and protect 

 the five, pale green sepals. The corolla is an open bell 

 with five lobes and down from each lobe runs a stripe 

 which guides visiting insects to a tiny nectar-well. The 

 color varies from pink with white stripes to white with 

 pink stripes. When the flower first opens it shows the 

 spoon-shaped stigmas close together pushing up through 

 the anther cluster; later, the style lengthens, bringing 

 the stigmas far beyond the anthers; the pollen is white. 

 On cloudy mornings the bells are slow to open, but 

 on moonlight nights they are all wide-awake and 



164 



Wild Morning-Glory. 

 Convolvulus septum 



