BINDWEED TRIBE 247 



matured blackish seeds. The flowers expand all the summer ; they are some- 

 times of a deep-rose colour, at others paler, or even white ; and they often 

 serve as canopies to some little lilac-coloured insects, which, probably, find 

 food as well as shelter within them. 



" Our vernal flowers have faded now, for summer is abroad ; 

 There's thicker foliaf^e on tlie trees, and greener is the sod ; 

 You cannot ransack wood or hill, the wayside hedge or dell, 

 ]jut you shall hnd a store of flowers whose charms no tongue can tell. 

 It is the month of roses, tlie sweetbriar, and the thorn ; 

 "While peering at the sunshine amidst the emerald corn. 

 The pimpernel thrusts out its bloom of scarlet, closing up, 

 At every passing shower or cloud, the treasures of its cup ; 

 And sweet as a bruised walnut-leaf, when it begins to fade, 

 The lemon-scented agrimony perfumes all the glade. 

 With starry blossoms topaz-hued ; while near tliem in the wlieat, 

 Pink-bell'd Convolvuli trail out their corals fair and sweet." 



The root of this Bindweed aflibrds a resinous substance of some medicinal 

 power, though not so active as the scammony which is procured from the 

 root of C. scammojiia, and which is imported from the Levant, where the 

 Convolvulus which produces it is very common. Several of the tribe afford 

 similar resins, and the medicinal jalap is yielded by the root of the Ipomcea 

 purfja. 



2. Hooded Bindweed {Calptegia). 



1. Great Hooded Bindweed (C. sepium). — Stem climbing; leaves 

 arrow-shaped, their lobes often blunt, as if cut off ; stalks single-flowered ; 

 bracts heart-shaped ; stigmas short and blunt ; perennial. The plants of this 

 genus are very nearly allied to those of the last, differing chiefly in the con- 

 spicuous leaf -like bracts. Our Great White Bindweed is a well-known wild 

 flower, its large foliage hanging about the hedges, and giving them, in 

 autumn, a yellow tinge by its deep colour. The leaves differ from those of 

 any other native plant in the peculiar manner in which their lobes are cut 

 off at the base ; but they are not all thus characterized, as some are heart- 

 shaped. The beautiful large snowy bells, sometimes striped with pink, and 

 occasionally entirely of pale rose-colour, hang gracefully among the large 

 leaves from June to September, and compensate by their elegance of form 

 and hue for the absence of fragrance. They are not so sensitive to rain as 

 the flowers of the Field Bindweed, nor do they close until the near approach 

 of night. Country people call the plant Old Man's Nightcap and Great 

 Withywind. Its roots have medicinal properties, similar to those of the 

 scammony ; and Dr. Withering thought they might be used as a substitute 

 for that drug. Swine eat them without injury. 



The large Bindweed attains great luxuriance in hedges and banks near 

 rivers, sending out masses of leaves on its climbing stems. Meyen, referring 

 to the Lianas, or climbing plants, Avhich are so striking a feature of tropical 

 scenery, and give to the primeval forests their character of exuberant vege- 

 tation, says, " Plants of this kind are almost unknown in our northern 

 regions. The hop, the honeysuckles, and bryonies can give us only a faint 

 idea of the Lianas of those countries ; but our Great White Bindweed, which 

 often grows profusely over the highest bushes, may give us, by its beautiful 



