Convolvulus. 
(NIGH T.) 
“ The night 
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,” 
N EVER had a more beautiful emblem of its majestic love¬ 
liness assigned to it than when the florigraphists chose 
re Convolvulus for its representative in their science of sweet 
things. 
The Major Convolvulus, symbolic of extinguished hopes , is a 
native of America; and the Minor Convolvulus, typifying repose, 
of Southern Europe : the flowers of this latter variety are some¬ 
times pure white, but more frequently are variegated with blue 
and yellow, or blue and white: one very beautiful kind is a 
bright blue, fading, by delicate gradations, to a pure white in 
the centre, and resembles that blue atmosphere, relieved by 
fleecy clouds, when, as Keats says, 
“ On high, 
Through clouds of fleecy white laughs the cerulean sky.” 
Nor is the form of this flower less lovely than its colour, either 
when spread out in full beauty to catch the kisses of its bosom 
lord, the sun, or when, at the stealthy approach of that star- 
covered dame of which it is the peerless symbol, it droops its 
graceful neck and shuts its bright blue eye. 
In the suburbs of the Eternal City—the seven-hilled Rome 
—different species of the convolvulus fling their many-hued 
wreaths round the hedges, in some parts decorating both 
sides of the road for several miles with a gallant array of 
bright leaves and brighter flowers, and the Italians, who pas¬ 
sionately love the beauteous plant, are fond of ornamenting 
their verandahs with its clinging wreaths. The Dwarf Con¬ 
volvulus, used to typify the axiom that love levels all , is also a 
native of the southern portions of Europe ; its fragile blossoms 
are of “ rosy red, Love’s proper hue.” 
The English wild varieties of this most graceful of all plants 
are commonly called “ bindweeds,” and of these the Field Con¬ 
volvulus is the best known. Its sweet-scented blossoms, which 
emit an almond-scented odour, are mostly striped with white 
and rose-colour, but sometimes are of a yellow hue; its deli- 
