106 SUMMER FLOWERS. 



northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, extending 

 also into the mountain regions of central Europe and Asia." 



The Convolvulaceous family must be known to every one, be- 

 ing rendered familiar in our gardens by the fine exotic genus 

 Pharbitis, which contains the annual Convolvulus major of 

 the seed-shops; in our hedges by the Common or Larger 

 Bindweed (Calystegia sepium), whose large white bells are so 

 beautiful as almost to plead an excuse for the intrusion of 

 so really troublesome a weed as this is generally held to be ; 

 and in our cornfields and waysides by the Lesser Bindweed,* 

 which is the subject of our illustration. This little prostrate 

 plant has a slender perennial rootstock, which creeps exten- 

 sively underground; from this grow out numerous trailing 

 slender stems, which either spread on the surface or reach a 

 couple of feet or so in height by twining up the stems of the 

 corn plants and other herbage about them : " although the 

 field is bare, fringing the path, or scattered near, a few neg- 

 lected ears we find, round which Convolvulus hath twined/ 5 

 They have alternate ovately arrow-shaped or sometimes has- 

 tate leaves, from the axils of which grow the usually two- 

 flowered peduncles. These flowers, which are fragrant, and 

 close at night and in dull weather, have five small blunt sepals ; 

 a bell- shaped corolla an inch or more in diameter, beautifully 

 variegated with pink and white, or sometimes cream-coloured 

 nearly white ; five stamens attached near the base of the co- 

 rolla ; and a simple style with two linear stigmatic lobes. The 

 ovary is two-celled, the cells two-seeded, and is surrounded 

 by an annular hypogynous disk having the appearance of a 

 fleshy ring around its base. This plant has the property of 

 expanding its gaily- coloured blossoms in the sunshine, and 

 closing them at the approach of night : 



* Convolvulus arvensis Plate 16 C. 



