THE SMALL CONVOLVULUS 137 



into the matter, the result being that one plant 

 that we at last dug up had a root thirty-nine inches 

 long ! The stems of the field convolvulus are 

 many and far-reaching, spreading in all directions 

 and often prostrate on the ground, though quite 

 prepared to ascend when opportunity offers. It 

 is a plant that is often to be found in cornfields, 

 and there it freely twines round the wheat or other 

 crop. We planted at intervals some fifteen feet 

 of an earthen slope, that was about four feet high, 

 with the roots of this convolvulus, and in a very 

 short time they dominated the whole thing and 

 nothing but absolutely pulling the bank down 

 would have got rid of them. Personally we were 

 entirely content to see the slope a mass of beautiful 

 pink blossoms, but it is entirely well that any one 

 before giving the plant a welcome should know 

 what they are committing themselves to. The 

 convolvulus is a lover of the sun and quickly droops 

 when brought indoors. Our mound, some five feet 

 wide at base and tapering to a foot or so, faced 

 north and south, and the whole of the plants faced 

 the one way the sunny aspect. 



Lest our proceedings in deliberately planting 

 wild things when we might have had the choicest 

 flowers of the florist on our bank should suggest 

 an inquiry into our sanity and subsequent liti- 

 gation amongst our heirs, executors, and assigns, 

 we may set on record that we have just found 



