ABOUT THE CON VOL VUL US. 383 



unless they found support from other plants, we see them 

 hanging by their tendrils, or by their pliant arms, about the 

 trunks of aged trees, the ancestral elms, or "those green-robed 

 senators of mighty woods, tall oaks," like a frail maiden to 

 the sturdy arm of some strong-shouldered brother, or, it may 

 be, of some one " nearer and dearer still." 



In reference to those climbing plants, one curious circum- 

 stance deserves to be noted. 



Some of them follow the sun's apparent course, that is, from 

 east to west, and always twine around the stem which sup- 

 ports them in the direction of left to right. Such is the case 

 with the common black briony, so common in our woods and 

 groves. 



Others invariably twine contrary to the sun, or from right to 

 left ; as is the case with the convolvulus, or large white bind- 

 weed. 



This singular tendency, be it observed, is always constant in 

 each individual of the species, and if you endeavour to train 

 one of these plants in a different direction, you will infallibly 

 kill it. 



The convolvulus will not grow from left to right, and the 

 black briony will not grow from right to left. Crede experto. 



The convolvulus, or white bindweed (Convolvulus septum, 

 or Calyslegia sepium), is one of the most elegant, though one of 

 the commonest climbing plants which festoon our willows, or 

 creep over our grassy banks, or wind in and about our hedges. 

 Its large white bells, which the country people unpoetically 

 call " old men's nightcaps," are remarkable for their purity of 



