702 MANUAL O* POISONOUS PLANTS 



Distribution. The weed is common in the Mississippi Valley in the moist 

 alluvial bottoms along streams and in fields. It is also found extensively creep- 

 ing over weeds and other herbaceous vegetation and roadsides throughout the 

 state. The species is native to North America and is common from Nova Scotia 

 to Maine, south to North Carolina and Texas to Kansas, Utah, Montana, 

 Minnesota and eastward. It also occurs in Europe and Asia. 



Fig. 405. Bindweed (Con- 

 rolvulus sepium.) Supposed 

 to be poisonous to swine. 

 (After Vasey.) 



Poisonous properties. The plant has a somewhat disagreeable odor. Dr. 

 Schaffner states that it is supposedly poisonous to swine. It is more than 

 likely that some of the same substances are found in hedge bindweed that 

 occur in Jalap. Jalap contains the glucosides convolvulin C 31 H 50 O 16 , jalapin 

 C 34 H 5C O 16 , turpethin C 34 H 56 O 16 , tampicin C 34 H_ 4 O 14 . The rootstock is rich 

 in starch. 



Convolvulus arvensis L. European Bindweed 



A deep-rooting perennial ; procumbent stem, twining or creeping ; propagates 

 freely by underground rootstocks; the leaves from 1 to 2 inches long, ovate, 

 oblong, arrow-shaped, the lobes at the base running, to a point; the flowers 

 are borne in 1-flowered peduncles with very small leaf-like bracts some distance 

 from the flowers; flowers an inch or less long, short; broadly funnel-shaped, 

 white, or commonly of a rose tinge. 



Distribution. This weed has been known for a considerable length of 

 time in eastern North America, where it has been sparingly naturalized for 

 some time. Its distribution may be given as Nova Scotia to Ontario, New 

 Jersey, Nebraska and Kansas. 



Poisonous properties. Probably the same as the preceding. European au- 

 thorities list this and the common morning glory, especially the latter, as 

 somewhat poisonous because of their purgative properties. 



