TKOP^OLUJE rJIBELLATTTM. 



179 



The plant is generally kept by the London Florists, and may be procured of 

 them for a moderate sum. 



By some authorities the Pharbitis Learii is stated to be a native of Buenos 

 Ayres; but by others Mexico is given as its original habitat, which is more 

 probable. The generic name Pharbitis is derived from pharbe, colour, in 

 allusion to the rich and brilliant tint of most of the species. Having referred 

 to the leading botanical features of this tribe of plants, under the head of Convol- 

 vulus Italicus, in our previous number, we have thought it unnecessary to notice 

 them on the present occasion. The ceconomical and medicinal properties of the 

 Convolvulacese are not without interest. The sweet Potato of the tropics, 

 formerly known as Convolvulus Batatas, and now as Batatas edulis, is a plant 

 of some importance, and is largely cultivated for its roots in many of the 

 South American provinces; even in Europe it succeeds in the open ground — 

 with certain precautions. The roots of many other species yield a purgative 

 resin : the well known Jalap is produced by the Exogonium purga, and also by 

 the Batatas Jalapa. The European Convolvulus Scammonii, a plant indigenous 

 to the Levant, produces the Scammony, so largely employed in infantine 

 disorders. 



TROPioLUM UMBELLATUM. 



Umbel-Jtowered Indian Cress. 

 Linman Class Octandria. Order — Monogynia. Natural Order — Tkop.>eolacejf:. 



It is difficult to understand how so interesting a plant as the Tropaolum 

 umbcllatum should have been kept so entirely in the back ground almost from 

 the date of its introduction to the present moment ; a figure and description in 

 the leading Botanical serial some years since, and a brief allusion to it in the 

 contemporary publications of the same class, are at present nearly all the popular 

 evidences of its existence. Whether this be owing to any unaccountable caprice 

 on the part of the floricultural public itself, or to a prejudice which those whose 

 province it is to cater for their wants may have conceived against it (and every- 

 body knows that either of these suppositions are quite allowable), we can only 

 guess ; this much, however, is certain— that it is in no degree attributable to any 

 want of merit on its part, for, without attempting to exalt this species at the 

 expense of others, it may safely be affirmed that its elegant ivy-like foliage, the 



