157 
CONVOLVULUS SCAMMONIA. 
Syrian Bindweed, or Scammony. * 
Class Pentandria.— Or<7er Monogynia. 
Nat. Old. CAMPANACEiE, Linn. Convolvuli, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, a perianthura, five-cleft. Corolla 
monopetalous, ' bell-shaped, plaited. Stigma 2. Capsule 
two or three-celled, each cell containing two or three seeds. 
Spec. Char. Leaves sagittate, the posterior margins with 
a tooth. Footstalks cylindrical, long, mostly three-flowered. 
The Convolvulus is so universally known, and so easily dis- 
tinguishable, from the shape of its flowers, as scarcely to require 
any general description ; we shall only observe, that the species are 
very numerous, amounting to no less than one hundred and twenty, 
some of which are to be found in almost every country, and every 
climate of the habitable world, though by far the greater part are in- 
digenous to the warmer latitudes, from whence many of them have 
been introduced into our gardens and green-houses. t 
The scammony Convolvulus is a chmbing perennial plant, grow- 
ing in Syria, Mysia, and Cappadocia, particularly in the neigh- 
bourhood of Antioch and Aleppo; it is also to be met with in 
Tripoli, and we believe some other of the more eastern Barbary 
States. It was first cultivated in England by Gerarde, in 1597. 
The root of this plant is from three to four feet long, and from nine 
to twelve inches in circumference, covered with bark of a light grey 
colour; tapering, branched towards the bottom, and containing, 
when fresh, a milky juice, in which the medical virtues of the plant 
reside; the stalks are numerous, slender, twining, and spread 
themselves on the ground, or, if supported, climb to the height of 
fifteen or twenty feet ; the leaves are arrow-shaped, smooth, of a 
bright green colour, and stand upon long foot-stalks ; the flowers 
* Fig. a. represents a cutting, the leaves, flowers, &c. of the natural size. h. 
top portion of a small root. c. The stamina, d. The pistillnm. 
Thirty-nine species. — Hort. Cant. 
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