THE CONVOLVULUS 
175 
flowers were regarded as common, and admiration was 
shoitiy bestowed upon some paler beauty of more northern 
regions and cloudy skies, which, commonly as it might 
have grown around their former homes, had now attained 
to the value of an exotic. 
Not less frequent a flower than the large bindweed, and 
adding to its beauty the charm of a sweet fragrance, is the 
small pink field convolvulus (Convolvulus arvensis). Who 
ever trod the grassy plain on a summer’s day and did not 
find it wreathing the grass at his feet, and yielding so 
sweet a perfume that he might have thought an almond 
tree in full blossom must be somewhere near his path? 
The very meadow grass is entwined by it. But when it 
creeps into the corn-field, and its tiny stem encircles the 
corn, its fairy wreath is an annoyance to the farmer, for 
he knows it will injure the produce of his field. Its 
slender white roots can live best on driest soils; and diffi- 
cult indeed it is to expel it when once it enters the culti- 
vated land. This flower has, in common with the pimper- 
nel and many others, the property of closing up previous 
to rain. Indeed, all plants of the convolvulus family 
rejoice in the sunshine; and several of their blossoms do 
not display their beauty after noon. 
One other kind only can be reckoned among our wild 
convolvuluses. This is the sea-side bindweed (Calystegia 
soldanella), a larger flower than the field species, of a 
rose - colour, somewhat tinged with purple, and having 
yellow plaits. Its stems run along the sandy shore, but 
do not ascend ; although they entwine about anything near 
them. These plants are all in blossom during the months 
of June, July, and August. 
These flowers receive their English name of bindweed 
from their propensity to cling to other plants; and the 
Latin name has the same signification, being formed from 
“convolvo,” to entwine. 
If we turn to our gardens, we shall there find several 
species of convolvulus. The most common is that usually 
termed minor convolvulus (Convolvulus tricolor). The 
bright-blue flowers of this plant, rayed with white, form 
an excellent border ornament; for though the blossoms 
are frail, there is so great a profusion of them that they, 
in succession, present a blooming plant during two or 
