CALYSTEGIA PUBESCENS. 
(Downy Bindweed,) 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
CONVOLVULACE^. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character.— Calyx five-parted, inclosed 
within two foliaceous bracteas. Corolla campanulate, 
five-plicate. Style one ; stigma two-lobed ; lobes terete 
or globose. Ovarium two-celled ; cells two-ovulate. 
Capsule one-celled from the shortness of the dissepi- 
ment. — Don's Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character.— Plant perennial. Stents her- 
baceous, twining, pubescent. Leaves oblong, hastate, 
rather pubescent, acute, with angular lobes at the 
base. Peduncles unifloral, with numerous angulosities. 
Bracts ovate, ciliate, with reflexed margins.-— Lindley. 
Our gardens are indebted to those of China for this plant, it having come from 
them to the Horticultural Society in the summer of 1844. Since then the Society 
has distributed it, and many collections possess the species. Messrs. Whitley and 
Osborne, Fulham, grew the specimen from which the representation here given, 
taken in July, was obtained. 
Few plants are capable of originating more pleasurable emotions than climbers 
and twiners, when the latter are even but comparatively enabled and allowed to 
exhibit their inherent loveliness. The way in which nearly all grow, and rest upon 
and clothe almost everything within reach, the uncommonly interesting beauty of the 
flowers of many kinds, and the prodigality of their inflorescence, great qualities 
though they be, are but every-day ones with the plants in question. C. pubescens is 
a twiner whose claims to regard subsist more on newness and singularity, than 
other features ; but it is also interesting and useful, as far as the last quality consists, 
in the ease with which it flourishes and the freedom of its blooming. Great 
success distinguishes the progress of our plant when favoured with tolerable soil and 
the shelter of a greenhouse, whether it be in a pot or planted out. Under the 
latter circumstances in the open air, planted against a conservative wall, or any 
object upon or over which it can ramble, in a favourable situation, it would be still 
more at home. Propagation is accomplished by dividing the roots, and also by 
cuttings. 
There is a peculiar advantage in growing climbing and twining plants in the open 
air, and one that is too often lost sight of ; it is that of being able so to place them, 
that as they grow, they have liberty to assume something of the appearance, and 
