THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
OF 
PHARMACY. 
OCTOBER, 183S , 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. XXIII. — CONVOLVULUS PANDURATUS. 
By Walter Shinn. 
An Inaugural Essay. 
This plant belongs to the Class Pentandria, Order Mo- 
kogynia, Lin., and to the Natural Family Convolvulace^, 
Lind. 
Generic Characters. Calyx five-parted ; corolla campa- 
nulate, plaited; stigmas two; capsule two or three-celled; 
cells two-seeded. — Nuttall. 
Specific Characters. — Stem twining; leaves cordate, or 
panduriform, acuminate, lobes rounded; peduncles one to 
five-flowered; bracts small, at the base of the peduncles; 
flowers fasciculate, corolla tubular, campanulate. — Beck. 
Description, — The root is perennial, very large, cylindri- 
cal, spindle-shaped, and marked by longitudinal fissures. It 
is usually from two to four inches in thickness, and from two 
to three feet in length, branched towards its extremity, and 
of an ochre color. Pursh states that, in some instances, it 
attains to an enormous size; that he has seen one the thick- 
ness of a man's thigh. It abounds in a white succulent fluid. 
"The stem is twining, generally procumbent upon the earth, 
and not unfrequently climbing upon fences. It is round, and 
of a greenish-purple color. The leaves are broad, heart- 
shaped, entire, lobed panduriform, somewhat acuminate, deep 
green above, and lighter underneath, situated on long petioles 
vol. v.— NO. III. 23 
