130 FLORA mSTORICA. 



kinds were known in our gardens as long back as 

 the time of Charles I., as Parkinson tells us, in 

 1629, that he received the seeds of the Convolvulus 

 Minor '' out of Spain and Portugal, from Guil- 

 launie Boel." He speaks of this flower with de- 

 hght, and tells us, ''• it is of a most excellent fair 

 skie-coloured blew, so pleasant to behold, that often 

 it amazeth the spectator." Tiiis species is now 

 ascertained to be a native of Barbary, from whence 

 it travelled first to Spain, and has since been scat- 

 tered over the whole of Europe. It is now so com- 

 mon in Spain, Portugal, and Sicily, as to be con- 

 sidered one of their native weeds. It is called 

 Tricolor, from the three colours of its beautiful 

 corolla, which are yellow at the base, with rays of 

 white that divide it from the fine ultramarine blue 

 of the edge of the flower, which, as it expands to 

 the sun, forms a most gracefully-shaped cup or 

 chalice, like the end of a French-horn, and which, 

 in the reversed state, resembles the elegant roofs of 

 the Chinese pagodas. The Convolvulus opens and 

 closes its monopetalous flower with folds similar to 

 those of a parasol, which are never expanded at 

 night, or in wet weather, in order that the anthers 

 and stigma may be guarded from the humidity of 

 the air, and on this account it is named by the 

 French Belle-de-Joiir, Day Beauty. This is not a 

 dimbing plant, but carries its branches in a hori- 



