Convolvulacee. | FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 183 
A very beautiful genus, too well known as Convolvulus to reguire any detailed description. The species of 
Calystegia are few, but very widely diffused beyond the Tropics, and distinguished from Convoleulus by the leafy 
bracts at the base of the calyx, and the two blunt stigmas. Their flowers are the most graceful and beautiful to 
be found in New Zealand; but the different kinds, if indeed they be different, are extremely difficult to define 
by words. —Olimbing or prostrate smooth herbs, with milky juice. Leaves alternate, exstipulate. Flowers solitary, 
axillary, peduncled. Calyx of five sepals, enclosed in two leafy bracts. Corolla bell-shaped, plaited, five-lobed. 
Stigmas two, blunt. (Name from krahvi, a calyx, and oreyos, a covering.) 
1. Calystegia sepium, Br.; scandens, caule puberulo v. glaberrimo, foliis amplis oblongo-sagittatis 
acuminatis basi alte cordato-bilobis, lobis rotundatis angulatis lobatis truncatisve, bracteis acutis v. obtusis 
calyce longioribus, pedunculis petiolo sepissime duplo longioribus angulatis. Br. Prodr. A. Rich. Flora. 
A. Cunn. Prodr. DC. Prodr. Convolvulus, Linn. Engl. Bot. t. 813. 
Has. Throughout the Islands, abundant, Banks and Solander, etc. Nat. name, “ Panahe and Pohue,” 
Col. (A native of Britain.) 
This beautiful plant, the English “ Bind-weed," is as common in the Southern Hemisphere as it is in the 
Northern, being found in Chili, Australia, Tasmania, and Java, varying in the colour of its flowers from white 
to rose-purple. It is to be distinguished from the following by its great size, long leaves (2-4 inches), some- 
times acute, but generally acuminate, and deeply bilobed at the base, the sinus often 1 inch deep, rounded at 
the insertion of the petiole; the lobes long and parallel, placed close together, their apices round angled, truncate, 
or sinuate. Peduneles angled or margined, 3-5 inches long. Bracts very variable in shape, broadly ovate or oblong, 
acute or with long acuminate points, longer than the calyx. Corolla 8—4 inches broad, in small states 14 inch, 
but these are rare.—Of the above characters there is not one that can be strictly relied upon, and I do not know 
how this plant is to be distinguished in all its states, except by applying the above description in a general 
sense. Generally there is no difficulty in recognizing this, from its climbing habit, large size, deeply two- 
lobed leaves, and large flowers; but small, prostrate, short-leaved specimens are very puzzling. The large tu- 
berous root is eaten by the natives. It is to be remarked that the root of C. sepium in Hurope is considered 
poisonous, whereas that of this New Zealand plant is eatable; but I cannot allow this character alone any 
weight as of specific value. The properties of the same species vary eminently in various localities. This is 
notoriously the case with many medicinal plants, which are of violent action in one climate and innocuous in 
others. 
2. Calystegia žuguriorum, Br.; caule prostrato, foliis submembranaceis late ovato-cordatis deltoideisve 
acutis obtusisve integris sinuato-lobatis angulatisve sinu lato, pedunculis petiolo longioribus, bracteis 
calyce «equilongis obtusis v. acutis acuminatisve, capsula ovata acuta, seminibus fulvis. Br. Prodr. P. 
483 im obs. Convolvulus tuguriorum, Forst. Prodr. C. versatilis et C. lentus, Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. 
Tas. XLVII. 
Var. B. minor; foliis parvis unc. longis ovato-cordatis acuminatissimis. Convolvulus lacteus, Banks 
et Sol. MSS. et Te. 
Has. Abundant throughout the Islands, Banks and Solander, ete. (Cultivated in England.) 
More generally a prostrate plant than C. sepium, smaller in all its parts. Leaves broadly ovate-cordate or 
deltoid-cordate, with a shallow sinus, membranous, blunt, sharp or rounded at the point, entire, angled, or 
sinuate and almost lobed. Peduncles longer than the petioles. Bracts as variable in shape as in C. sepium, but 
usually shorter. Corolla white or rose-coloured. Capsule ovate, sharp-pointed, + inch long, with yellow seeds 
size of a tare in the few fruiting specimens I have examined.—PrATE XLVII. Fig. 1, stamen; 2, ovarium — 
both magnified. 
3. Calystegia Soldanella, Br. ; caule repente prostrato, foliis crassiusculis reniformibus sinu basi lato 
