cox VOLVULUS FAMILY. 



247 



1. BATA'TAS, Rumph. Sweet Potato. 



[Apparently an aboriginal or barbarous name, — adopted for tbe genus.] 



Corolla campauulate — the limb spreading. Stamens 5, included. Style 

 simple ; stigma capitate ; 2-lobed. Capsule 4-celled, 4-valved. Seeds 4, 

 erect. 



1. B. e'dulis, Chois. Stem creeping, rarely voluble ; leaves subhastate 

 — cordate with the sinus broad and shallow, often angular and partially 

 lobed, petiolate ; peduncles as long or longer than the petioles, 3 - 4- 

 flowered. 



Eatable Batatas. Sweet Potato. Carolina Potato. 



Fr. Patate jaune. Germ. Bataten Winde. Span. Batata de Malaga. 



Root perennial, tuberous ; tubers oblong, terete, acute at each end, yellowish-white, or 

 sometimes purple externally, yellowish within. Stem 4-8 feet long, slender, prostrate, 

 radicating, pilose. Leave? 2-3 or 4 inches long ; petioles about 2 inches in length. Corolla 

 purple (Jide DC). 



Gardens and lots : cultivated. 



Ohs. Cultivated for its large sweet edible farinaceous roots, especially 

 in the Southern States, though its culture has been found practicable 

 much farther Xorth than was formerly supposed. The warm sandy soil 

 of New Jersey produces fine specimens, and it has succeeded in some of 

 the States of the West. In the Middle States it does not flower, but is 

 propagated altogether by cuttings. The plant is generally supposed to 

 have originated in tropical America ; although it has extended, in culti- 

 vation, throughout the warmer portions of both continents, it has never 

 been detected by any botanist in the wild state. The word potato is said 

 to be a corruption of Batata, the name it bore among the aborigines of 

 some portion of this continent. This is doubtless the potato spoken of 

 by Shakspeare, and contemporary writers ; the " Irish Potato," so 

 called (Sola'num tl'bero'sum), being then scarcely known in the Old 

 World. Sweet Potatoes were among the presents which Columbus 

 carried to Isabella, from the newly-discovered world. 



2. COXYOL'VULUS, L. Bind-weed. 



[Latin, Convolvo, to entwine, or wind about ; descriptive of the plant.] 



Corolla carapanulate. Sty-e simple ; stigmas 2, terete-linear, often 

 revolute. Capsule 2-celled. Sseds 4, erect. Stems twining procumbent, 

 often erect-spreading. Flowers mostly opening at dawn. 



1. C. arven'sis, L. Stem voluble or often prostrate ; leaves ovate- 

 oblong, mostly obtuse, sagittate at base ; ];>eduncles mostly 1-flowered, 

 bibracteate — the bracts small, remote from the flower. 



Field Convolvulus. Bind-weed. 



Fr. Liseron des champs. Germ. I)ie Ackerwinde. Span. Corregiiela. 



Roc^ perennial, creeping, long. Slem about 2 feet long, slender, branching, procumbent 



