370 THE CONVOLVULUS FAMILY. 



I. POLEIMIONZUM. POLEMONIUM. 



Herbs, with pinnate leaves, and blue or white flowers in terminal 

 corymbs. Calyx 5-lobed. Corolla with a very short tube, and a broad, 

 open, 5-cleft limb. Stamens oblique, their filaments dilated into hairy 

 scales. Capsule with several seeds. 



A small genus, extending all round the northern hemisphere, cliiefly at 

 high latitudes. 



1. Blue Polemonium. Folemonium cseruleum, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 14. Greek Valerian or Jacob's Ladder^ 



Stock perennial, the radical leaves forming dense tufts, their common 

 stalk 6 inclaes long or more, bearing from 11 to 21 lanceolate, entire seg- 

 ments or leaflets of a tender green. Stems erect, li to 2 feet high, bearing 

 a few smaller pinnate leaves, and a rather showy terminal corymb or 

 panicle of flowers. 



Widely ditiused over the higher northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and 

 America, extending also into the mountain-regions of central Europe and 

 Asia. In Britain it is found in several parts of the north of England, but 

 has been so long cultivated in cottage-gardens, and seeds so readily, that it 

 cannot be pronounced with any certainty to be truly indigenous. Fl. 

 summer. 



LTI. CONVOLVULTJS FAMILY. CONVOLVULACE^. 



Herbs, usually twining or prostrate (rarely, in some exotic 

 species, erect or shrubby), with alternate leaves, or leafless and 

 parasitical ; the flowers, often very showy, growing singly or 

 several together on axillary peduncles. Calyx of 4 or 5 dis- 

 tinct sepals, often very unequal, Corolla usually campanulate 

 (but varying in form in exotic species), plaited in the bud, 

 with 4 or 5 lobes, or nearly entire. Stamens 4 or 5, attached 

 near the base of the corolla. Ovary and capsule containing 

 2, 4, or 6 seeds, and often divided into 2, 3, or 4 cells, the par- 

 titions very thin, and remaining attached to the central column, 

 and not to the valves, when the capsule bursts. Styles simple, 

 with 2 or rarely 3 stigmatic lobes, and 2 distinct styles. 



An Order rather numerous in species, and widely spread over the 

 warmer and temperate parts of the globe. The exotic genera, Ipomoea, 

 Pharbifis, and Qiiamoclit, recently separated from it, supply some of our 

 most beautiful greenhouse and hothouse climbers. 



Stem leafy. Corolla oampanulate 1. CoNVOLVtri.us. 



Stem thread-like, without leaves, parasitical on other plants. Co- 

 rolla nearly globular 2. Doddee. 



I. CONVOLVULUS. CONVOLVULUS. 



Twining or prostrate herbs (or in some exotic species erect), with alter- 

 nate leaves. Sepals 5. Corolla campanulate. Style single, with 2 oblong j 

 or linear stigmatic lobes. Capsule with 4 seeds in 1 or 2 cells. 



