Ct ASS V. ORDER 1.] CONVOLVULUS. 261 



uiifrequent ; Craven and Gordale, Yorkshire; about Queensferry, 

 Arniston and Delvine Woods, Scotland; Knockmaroon Hill, near 

 Chapelizod, Ireland. 



Perennial; flowering in June and July. 



This pretty plant, known by the name of Greek Valerian, or the 

 more common one of Charity, is a garden flower, much cultivated, 

 continuing in flower a long lime, and varying greatly in its colours 

 from a dark blue to a pure white. This, like many other plants dis- 

 tinguished by ancient names, is not found to possess the many virtues 

 that it is related to have had in former times ; or it is thai we apply 

 the names to other plants than they formerly distinguished. ]n the 

 present case, the plant appears scarcely to have any sensible medical 

 qualities, much less those of such great importance as to have 

 induced Kings to have waged war against each other, to settle a 

 dispute as to who was to have the honour of being considered the 

 discoverer of so rare and valuable a plant. 



GENUS XX. CONVOL'VULUS.— Linn. Bindweed. 



Nat. Ord. Conyolvula'ce^. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx five-cleft. Corolla bell-shaped, folded in five 

 plaits. Stigmas two. Capsule of from one to four cells, with as 

 many valves. Seeds one or two in each cell. — Name from 

 Convolvoy to entwine. 



* Flowers with ttvo distant bracteas. 



1. C. arven'sis, Linn. (Fig. 343.) stnall Bindweed. Stem climbing; 

 leaves arrow-shaped, their lobes acute ; peduncles mostly single 

 flowered ; bracteas small, distant from the flowers. 



English Botany, t. 312.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 285.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 112. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 167. 



Moot with very long creeping underground stems, spreading to a 

 considerable distance, and diflicult of extirpation. Stem slender, 

 angular, simple or branched, smooth below, downy towards the end of 

 the branches, prostrate, unless near some plant, round which it can 

 entwine and support itself. Leaves alternate, arrow-shaped, round, or 

 obtuse at the apex, the lobes at the base acute, spreading, smooth or 

 downy, with a mid-rib and slender lateral veins, on a slender chan- 

 nelled footstalk. Flou-ers arising from the axis of the leaves, solitary, 

 or in pairs, on a slender angular stalk about as long or longer than the 

 leaves, and, like them, more or less hairy, each flower having a distant 

 pair of awl-shaped bractea. Calyx of five ovate obtuse hairy segments. 



