CONVOLVrLUS. 135 



blades of grass, or whatever conies in its way, not 

 even refusino: to embrace the nettle for the sake of 

 a prop to display its beauties on, which are but 

 little inferior, in point of colouring, to the beautiful 

 cups of the Convolvulus Major, whilst it possesses 

 an agreeable fragrance which the other cannot 

 boast of. 



Nature has endowed this native flower of our 

 fields with the means of protecting its parts of fruc- 

 tification from the humidity of the night air by the 

 help of folds in the cup, which regularly open with 

 the rising of the sun, and close as the day decreases, 

 or at the approach of rain. The nectary of this 

 little flower also displays the wise provision which 

 Nature has made to secure this saccharine juice, so 

 essential to the formation of the seed. The stigma 

 of this flower is supported on arches over the bot- 

 tom of the cup of the corolla, leaving only such 

 small openings between the piers that form the 

 arches as to bid defiance to the plunder of the bee 

 or insects of any considerable size : yet it seems to 

 support an animal peculiar to this plant, for w^e 

 seldom look into the blossom of this field Convolvu- 

 lus without seeing several minute insects busily 

 employed in their ingress to and egress from this 

 cavern of sweets. These insects are of the same 

 lilac colour as the anthers of the flowers, and, we 

 presume, are mere children of the day, whose exis- 



