The Indian Jasmine. 247 



broad lobes, and lying close to a humid lip, through which the 

 influence of the pollen is conveyed to the ovules. The widening 

 of the stigma is very common in this tribe; even in the crocus it 

 occurs, only the stigmas are so rolled up that you do not dis- 

 cover it until you unroll them ; they are in fact so much heavier 

 than the power of the style can support, that in the saffron cro- 

 cus, in which they constitute the substance called saffron, they 

 hang down on the outside like an orange tassel. Also to this 

 natural order belong those countless species of Ixia, Gladiolus 

 Watsonia, Babiana, &c, which spring up at the Cape of Good 

 Hope upon the commencement of the rains, and soon cover the 

 parched and half-naked karroos with a robe of the deepest green, 

 adorned with all manner of gay and sparkling colors. 



The Indian Jasmine. 



This is a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogynia. 

 Its characters are : — calyx five divisions, unclothed ; corol funnel- 

 shaped, with five folds; stigma globe-headed, covered with pro- 

 tuberances ; capsule two or three-celled, many-seeded. This 

 plant belongs to the natural order Convolvulacero or Bindweed 

 tribe, from its habit of twisting or binding around substances. 

 It is a native of the West Indies, and one of their most beautiful 

 ornamental climbers. It is annual in its duration. The whole 

 plant is very downy; the leaves heart-shaped, rather long, and 

 tapering to a point ; the flower-slalks bear five flowers ; the 

 flower-cups warty and bearded. It bears a succession of bright 

 scarlet flowers from June to September. The generic name is 

 derived from two Greek words, meaning, resembling a vine; 

 the specific, from the color of its flowers. Speaking of the 

 order to which it belongs, Lindley observes that these plants are 

 monopetalous, but have a twining stem, and corollas that are 

 neatly plaited when they close, like the paper purses made for 

 children. These corollas open or close under the influence of light 

 or darkness, some opening only in the day, others in the night, 

 and in one case so sensitive that they contract beneath the louch 

 like the leaves of the Mimosa. The calyx consists of five 



