IPOMCEA LACUNOSA. 
\ 
The whole family of Convolvulacece is noted for its 
flowers, which usually expand their corollas in the 
morning, or only in fair weather. The first of these 
facts is indeed so well known, that many of the species 
lose no possible chance of receiving pollen from other 
flowers. Our Ipomoea Lacvnosa, indeed, appears to act 
on this idea, for, according to the writer’s own obseiva- 
tion, its flowers do not open in the morning only, nor 
are popularly called “Morning Glories;” and the second, 
the closing of the flowers at the approach of rain, was 
looked upon in the early days of modern teleology, as 
a delicate contrivance for the protection of the stamens, 
and consequently of the pollen. Some modern physi¬ 
ologists, however, believe that plants with fully devel¬ 
oped flowers, such as the Convolvulacece, have an abhor¬ 
rence of perpetual close-breeding or self-fertilization, 
and if this be true, it might almost seem as if such 
flowers, not caring for their own pollen, would hardly 
take any special trouble to preserve it, and would rather 
prefer to keep their corollas open at all times, so as to 
do they close at the approach of rain. The writer of 
this had to pass regularly once a week, about noon, by a 
hedge where a number of the plants were growing; but 
he never noticed any open flowers, until one day very 
late in the fall, he happened to pass by the spot in a 
rain-storm. Our drawing was made from a mid-day 
specimen gathered on this occasion. The curious beha¬ 
viour of our plant in this respect, in which it differs so 
decidedly from its near relatives, is well worthy the 
attention of the student. 
Another singular fact connected with the fertilization 
of the Ijccmaa Lacur.osa is the disarticulation of its 
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