OF ORNAMENTAL PERENNIALS. 281 
dividing its creeping, flesliy roots. All the species of this habit of growth are apt to become troublesome, parti- 
cularly in small gardens, from the rapidity with which they spread through a border, their roots tating firm hold 
of the soil, and destroying those of every other plant. To avoid this inconvenience, all the species with creeping 
roots do best cultivated in pots, sunk in the ground. 
OTHER SPECIES OF CONVOLVULUS. 
These are numerous, but only a few of them are cultivated in British gardens, and they differ very slightly 
from those that have been already described. 
GENUS IL 
IPOMCEA, Lin. THE IPOMCEA. 
Lin. Syst. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Oenekim Charjcter. — Calyx of five sepals. Corolla campanulate. | Oyariutn two-celled ; cells two-seeded. Capsule two-celled ; cells 
Suineus inclosed. Style one; stigma two-Iobed ; lobes capitate. | two-seeded. (G.Don.) 
Description, &c. — It has been already mentioned that the plants composing the genus Ipomoea are 
distinguished from those belonging to Convolvulus by the capitate lobes of the stigma. By far the greater 
number of the species require a stove in England ; and even some of those which will flower in the open air 
during summer, are killed by the first frost in winter. The flowers are all exceedingly beautiful, but they are 
of short duration. The word Ipomoea signifies "like the Convolvulus," from the great resemblance between 
the flowers of the two genera. 
1.— IPOM(EA PANDURATA, Lin. THE POTATO VINE. 
Specific Charicter. — Leaves cordate or panduriform, aciiminate, 
entire ; peduncles niany-fluweied ; segments of the calyx obtusely 
nerved. 
Synoithifs. — ConTolvnlus panduratus, Michx. ; C. candicans, 
Sol, ; Tennessee Bind-weed. 
Engravings. — Bot. Reg., t. 588 ; Bot. Mag., t. 1603 ; and our 
Description, &c. — This species varies very much in its leaves and flowers ; but it is always distinguished 
by its tuberous cylindrical root, which is generally about the thickness of a man's wrist, two or three feet long, 
and furnished with eyes like a potato ; and hence its American name of " potato vine." The root, however, is 
not eatable, being extremely bitter j and, indeed, it is used in medicine as a kind of jalap. The stem is twining, 
and the leaves vary very much in shape ; those near the root being large and cordate, and those of the stem 
being frequently lobed, so as to become panduriform, or fiddle-shaped. The flowers are produced in panicles, 
and vary considerably in size ; but the limb of the corolla is always white, and the tube dark, though the latter 
varies from a pink to deep crimson or purple. The species is a native of North America, from Canada to 
Carolina, and it was introduced in 1 732. "When grown from imported roots, it sometimes appears quite hardy, 
and sometimes tender, according to the part of America from which the tubers were brought. It is propagated 
by dividing the tubers, as every eye will grow, like those of a potato. Even when the stems are killed down to 
the ground, fresh shoots will generally rise in spring from the eyes of the tubers. A variety of this species has 
been found in America with double flowers, a very rare circumstance in any plant belonging to the order 
Convolvulaceae. 
o o 
