VINES 459 



38 



C. arvensis has pale, yellow stems with large, deeply fringed 

 scales. ' 



Dry soil from New York to Florida, and across the continent. 



In that singular book by Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Loves of the 

 Plants (published in 1791), he says of the cuscutas : 



" With sly approach they spread their dangerous charms, 

 And round their victims wind their wiry arms: 

 So by Scamander, where Laocoon stood, 

 Where Troy's proud turrets glittered in the wood, 



* ****** 



Two serpent forms, incumbent on the main, 



*****!!«* 



Ring above ring, in many a tangled fold. 



Close and more close their writhing limbs surround." 



39. W^ild Potato-vine 



Ipomoea pandurata. — Family, Convolvulus. Color, white, 

 with purple centre. Leaves, heart or fiddle shaped, pointed, 

 petioled. Time, summer. 



A wild member of the morning-glory genus, with a tubular, 

 spreading corolla 3 inches long. It is a trailing or twining vine, 

 and produces from i to 5 blossoms on rather long peduncles. 

 The root is tuberous, very large, from which it gets another of 

 its common names, " man-of-the-earth." 



40. Common Morning-glory 

 /. purpurea, in its varying shades of white, blue, or crimson, 

 is sometimes reduced to a wild state, having escaped from 

 cultivation. Twining and leafy. 



41. Cypress-vine 

 I. qudmoclit has delicate leaves parted into thread-like, par- 



