4:12 LXXXl, CONVOLVULACE^. 



r 



2. IPOMCEA, Linn. 



(Pharbitis, Batatas, Calonyctioa, Quamoclit, Aniseia, and Sklnucria, Chois.) 



Corolla campannlate or witli a cylindricaltube; tlie limb spreading, entire, 

 angular or rarely deeply lobed, folded in the bud. Ovary 2- or S-cellcd, 

 with 2 ovules in each cell, or more or less perfectly 4-celled by the addition 

 of a spurious dissepiment between the ovules. Style filiform ; stigma 

 capitate, entire, or Avith 3 short globular or rarely almost ovate lobes. Fruit 

 a dry capsule. — Twining prostrate creeping or rarely low and erect herbs or 

 woody climbers. Leaves entire lobed or divided into distinct segments or 

 leaflets. Flowers often large and showy, axillary, solitary or in dichotomous 

 cymes or rarely in irregular racemes. 



A. large genus, dispersed over all warm climatcSj very few species being fouud without 

 the tropica, either in the New or the Old World. Of the thii-ty-eight Australiau species 

 here enumerated, six or perhaps seven are dispersed over the tropical regions of the ^ew 

 as well as the Old World, five or perhaps six spread over Africa as well as Asia, six appear 

 to be limited to tropical Asia, two extend from the Mascarene to the Tacific Islands, one 

 only extends to the Pacific Islands, two are probably introduced only in Austraha, and tue 

 remaining fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen, arc, as far as hitherto known, endemic in Australia. 



The distribution of the numerous species into distinct genera has been frequeiiliy 

 attempted, but has been practically unsuccessful The separation of the species witn 

 hypocrateriform corolla and exserted stamens is perhaps the most definite, but a very uuna- 

 tural one, as it would associate L Bona-nox with /. QuamocHL Pharhitls with a f-^^|?^* 

 pistil, is quite as artificial, as it w^ould include /. d'lssecta with I. hederacea and its allie 

 besides that the character is sometimes inconstant in the same species. The ^^^mow^ a=f 

 sepiments of Batatas are often very imperfect or disappear altogether. The o^'^ry 

 Skinneria is not 1-locular, as had been supposed, although the dissepiment dries up as 

 fruit enlarges. The inequality of the sepals in some species of Aniseia is not g^^^^^^. V 

 m several species retained in Ipomcea. The spiral twisting of the anthers after f"^" \^ 

 their pollen, so characteristic of some of the large-catyxed species is but slight ^^r"^':^"., 

 m others. And notwithstanding great differences in the form of the corolla, m ^ 

 dehiscence of the capsule, and indumentum of the seeds, no good natiu-al groups foun 

 upon any of these characters have as yet been nronosed. As a whole, the gen«sy^^^'^,. . 



e 



be 



menl^ 



1. L panicu 



series of species here proposed are too artificial, and not always sufficiently 'i^^"?^^', ^f 

 given as sections, but they are the best I have been able to frame for the detenumauu 

 the Australian species. 



Series I. DigitatBe. Leaves digitate!^ divided into deep lobes or distinct seg 



or leajfets. Flowers of the Speciosse, or rarely of the Campanulatte. 



Leaves palmately or almost pcdately several-lobed. Flowers large in . , ,_ 



loose cymes ..'"'' '"'^"^^^''^'^ 



Leaves divided into 3 (or 5 ?)' distinct 'obovate lobed "segments. ^ ^r. 



Flowers fathers large. Plant stellatc-tomentose . ..... 2. L Bavenj^oiU' 



Leaves divided into 5 or 7 ovate or lanceolate entire segments, 

 ^lowers large. Plant glabrous or hairy. 



Sepals nearly equal. Seeds pubescent or hairy. Leaf-segments ^ . 



usually confiuent at the base ... * . . • 3. L palmata. 



Inner sepals nearly twice as large as' the outer ones! Seeds gla- . . 



brous. Leaf-segments quite distinct • 4. /• !Z"'^^^^^' 



Leaves divided into 3 to 7 linear usually pinnatifid segments/ , ^. -..u,. 



Corolla nearly 2 m. long. (Ovary 2-celU ?) ." ^. L ditenf'^' 



Corolla scarcely \ iu. long. Ovary 3-celkd ....... ®- ■^- dissecta. 



