CONVOLVULUS OR BINDWEED. 14>3 



and the Convolvulus Major, Purimrms. Both 

 of these kinds were known in our gardens as 

 long back as the time of Charles the First, as 

 Parkinson tells us, in 1629, that he received the 

 seeds of the Convolvulus Minor " out of Spain 

 and Portugal from Guillaume Boel." He speaks 

 of this flower with delight, and tells us, *' it is of 

 a most excellent fair skie-coloured blew, so plea- 

 sant to behold, that often it amazeth the spec- 

 tator." This species is now ascertained to be a 

 native of Barbary, from whence it travelled first 

 to Spain, and has since been scattered over the 

 whole of Europe. It is now so common in Spain, 

 Portugal, and Sicily, as to be considered 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 cha- 

 lice, 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 



