THE BINDWEED TRIBE. 



161 



corollas that spread open at the mouth, with unequal 

 divisions, and with stamens bent towards one side ; 

 while Kalmia has cup-shaped corollas with ten little 

 niches in which the anthers arc nipped up, so that 

 when the flower expands, the filaments are all curved 

 downwards away from the pistil, as if the corolla 

 was unwillinir to allow them to touch it ; but stir the 

 filament with a pin, at the time] when the anther is 

 ready to shed its pollen, and in an instant the 

 stamen starts up, and approaches the anther to the 

 stigma. 



All these plants are so well knouTi, from being 

 the pride of the American garden, that I have 

 only to name them to recall them to your memory. 

 Considering how very handsome they are, and how 

 innocent is their aspect, you would scarcely sup- 

 pose that venom lurked beneath their charms ; they 

 will, however, serve as an instance of how little you 

 may trust to appearances, even among flowers ; for 

 both the Rhododendron, the Kalmia, and the An- 

 dromeda, have not only noxious leaves and branches, 

 but their very honey is poison; as has been too 

 fatally experienced by those who have fed of the 

 produce of the hives of Trebizonde. 



Extremely different from these is the tribe of Bind- 

 weeds (Plate XII. 2.), of which the wild Convolculus, 

 at once the pride and pest of our English hedges, and 

 the not less beautiful but more harmless Ipomcea of 

 the gardens are the representatives. These plants, 

 like the Heath tribe, are monopetalous, but they have 

 a twining stem, and corollas that are neatly plaited 



M 



