294 CONVOLVULACE.©. 



two or four-celled. Style with undivided or divided, 



globular or oblong stigma (important for distinguishing 



the genera). Fruit usually a thin-walled capsule, but 



also a berry. Leaves always alternate. 



Species about 700, mostly in the warmer regions. The 

 genera are so much alike in appearance that their distinction 

 can often be made only by careful examination of the fruit, 

 stigmas, and smaller characteristics. 



ARGYREIA. f.b.i. ioi iii. 



Flowers in cymes peduncled in the leaf-axils ; stigma 



globular undivided ; ovary four-celled ; fruit fleshy- 



indehiscent. 



Species about 30, nearly all in India or the Malay Archi- 

 pelago. 



Very similar in general appearance to convolvulus the common Euro- 

 pean genus ; but differs from it in the flowers being in cymes not solitary, 

 and from both it and iroM^A, the common genus of the plains, in the 

 ovary being four-celled. 



Argyreia hirsuta Arnott ; F.B.I. iv 189, III 18. A 



strong climber, shaggy with silvery hairs on all the 



green parts. Leaf-stalks 2 inches : blades 4 by 3 inches, 



ovate with straight or slightly cordate base. Flowering 



branches (peduncles) stout, 4 to 7 inches, cymosely forked 



at the top with short branches so that the flowers are 



bunched : bracts oblanceolate or oblong, persistent, the 



outer one often stalked and leaf-like- Sepals linear. 



Corolla 2^ by 2 inches, pale purple with deep purple 



centre, t. 196. Wight Ic. t. 891 (Rivea). 



Nilgiris : Kotagiri, 6,500 feet. Coonoor, etc., flowering 

 May and after. Pulneys : 5,500 feet, etc. Not at high levels. 

 Fyson 1775, 1789. Bourne 187. 



Gen, Dist. These hills only and Ceylou as var coacta^ but very closely 

 allied to other species of South India. 



Various species of convolvulus (with two linear stigmas 

 and a two-celled ovary) and of ipom^ea (with two globose stigmas 

 and a two-celled ovary) are cultivated in gardens. 



