CONVOLVULACE.E 277 



No. 1. In the specimen described, oblong, obtuse, slightly emar- 

 ginate. 



Nos. 2 and 3. Obovate-oblong, broadly emarginate with a tooth 

 in the notch. 



Nos. 4-7. Broadly obcordate, or widely bifid, slightly cuneate at 

 the base, with a tooth in the apical sinus. 



The leaves on adult plants are very variable, as the following 

 instances will show. 



No. 1. Deeply obcordate, and on the upper part of plant almost 

 transverse, with oblong, obtuse, diverging lobes, having numerous 

 ascending parallel veins four from the base on each side and a 

 few alternate ones upwards, with the midrib excurrent, much reti- 

 culated. The lower leaves were like the cotyledons. 



No. 2. Eotund or oblong, emarginate, subcordate or rounded at 

 the base, alternately penninerved with four contiguous pairs at the 

 base ; midrib slightly excurrent. Upper leaves broadly subovate, 

 less cordate at the base. The midrib in both these plants was much 

 in advance of the lamina in young unfolded leaves, but it gradually 

 falls behind the lateral lobes as the leaf becomes ready to unfold. 



No. 3. In another form the leaves were ovate or obovate- oblong, 

 retuse, rounded or emarginate, and apiculate, irregularly alternately 

 penninerved, more or less cuneate or wavy at the base, and having 

 the midrib excurrent at the apex in all cases. 



Ipomcea purpurea, Lam. 



Ovary surrounded at the base by an annular, hypogynous disc, 

 of three carpels, three-celled, two ovules in each cell ; ovules as in 

 I. Pes-capras. 



Capsule globose, even and glabrous externally and internally, 

 three-celled, two- to six-seeded, and containing the remains of the 

 aborted ovules when less than six-seeded, tipped with the conical 

 remains of the persistent style, dehiscing by three valves. 



Seeds when six occupying the whole fruit, trigonous with the 

 two outer angles acute, the inner one blunt, and the lateral faces 

 flat and much broader than the dorsal aspect which is convex or 

 rounded, both longitudinally and transversely, pale whitish, ulti- 

 mately deep brown, rounded at the extreme base which projects a 

 little beyond the hilum ; hilum orbicular with a basal notch, brown 

 before the seed is mature, seated on an oblique depression of the 

 seed facing the inner angle of the cell. "Where two seeds only 

 occupy the fruit, they are ovoid or more or less hemispheric, occupy- 

 ing two cells of the ovary, while the third is nearly squeezed up 

 close to the outer wall. 



