WILD MORNING GLORY; HEDGE BINDWEED 



Convolvulus sepium L. 

 MORNING GLORY FAMILY 



11 And starred with a myriad blossom the 



long convolvulus hung}" Tennyson. 



Draping banks, bushes, and fences with handsome foliage 

 and beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers, the Wild Morning Glory 

 twines its graceful way from Newfoundland to British Columbia. 

 Its trumpets are sometimes pink with white stripes, but in Western 

 Canada they seem to be usually white, and since we have here 

 the unusual phenomenon of both pollen and pistil being white, 

 the flower is arrayed in bridal purity. In the throat of the 

 flower are fine tubes in a circle (they may be readily seen in the 

 picture opposite), each with a honey gland. Occasionally a big 

 sphynx, or humming bird moth may be seen hovering over 

 these wells of nectar, but in Western Canada certain species of 

 bees are the usual insect visitors. 



The Morning Glory climbs by twining its stems around any 

 support within reach. When, in the Spring, from the perennial 

 root a new shoot starts growth, its tip begins to revolve. Des- 

 cribing, as it lengthens, ever-widening circles, it seeks something 

 on which to ascend. If fortunate in touching anything, it at 

 once begins to entwine the support and seems by such contact 

 to be stimulated to greater growth. If nothing be found, the 

 shoot at length becomes so heavy that it falls prostrate, but the 

 growing tip, like Antaeus touching the ground, finds new strength 

 from the contact to again raise itself and swing in circles from 

 this advanced point. If several shoots chance to come together 

 they entwine each other, forming a living cable. Such cables 

 may often be seen writhing up from the ground as if in an agony 

 of endeavor to reach some support. Being stiffer than a single 

 strand, they rise higher and may sometimes attain to an overhead 

 branch that would be beyond the reach of a single shoot. The 

 claim has been made that climbing plants can sense in some way 

 the proximity of a suitable support. Wonderful stories in support 

 of such a claim have been told. But, on the whole, facts seem 

 to discredit such a theory. The reader may easily try some 

 simple experiments which might help to decide this interesting 

 point. 



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