a 
Tara 
| broken, a milky juice exudes. 
BINDWEED. 
thickets, and in other similar places where it can- 
not easily be reached; but when it appears, as it 
too often does, on open, clear pieces of ground, it 
may be effectually destroyed by sedulous hoeing 
through a period of three or four months; for 
when its stems are broken, a milky juice flows 
out, and occasions the root to become exhausted 
and to die. 
The soldanella, or sea bindweed, or sea bear- 
bind, formerly called Convolvulus soldanella, but 
now usually called Calysiegia soldanella, is an 
evergreen perennial of the sea beaches of many 
parts of England. Its roots are white, stringy, 
numerous, and extensively creeping ; its stems 
or weak trailing branches, are round, purplish 
| green, and from one foot to two feet long, and 
twine around neighbouring plants in the same 
manner as common bindweed; its leaves are 
| alternate, kidney-shaped, and about the size of 
those of the lesser celandine, and stand on long 
footstalks; and its flowers are somewhat bell- 
shaped, comparatively large, very beautiful, of a 
| delicate purplish pink with pale yellow streaks, 
standing on long solitary footstalks, appearing in 
June and July, and expanding only in the sun- 
shine. When either the stem or the root is 
Herbalists and 
old practitioners used this plant, under the name 
of soldanella or sea brassica, as a brisk purgative 
for the cure of dropsy and rheumatism. The 
general method of exhibition was a decoction of 
the whole of the fresh plant, with a few cloves, 
in ale or beer; but the purging action resembles 
that from scammony, and is much too violent for 
persons in bad health or of a weak constitution. 
The juice, if collected, and allowed to exsiccate, 
hardens into a substance resembling scammony. 
The Canary bindweed, Convolvulus canariensis, 
is a tender evergreen twiner. It grows naturally 
in the Canary Islands, and was introduced to 
Great Britain near the end of the 17th century. 
Its root is strong and fibrous; its stems are 
woody and twining, and divide into smaller 
stems which, if supported, rise to the height of 
20 feet; its leaves are soft, hairy, and oblong 
heart-shaped ; and its flowers are produced from 
the wings of the leaves, stand solitarily upon 
footstalks, are usually of a purple or pale blue 
colour, but in one variety are white, and bloom 
from May till September. This plant, in conse- 
quence of its having green leaves throughout the 
year, is a charming winter inhabitant of the 
greenhouse ; but though it needs only the same 
protection as a myrtle, it will not live in the 
open air. It may be propagated from either 
seeds, cuttings, or layers. 
The beautiful blue-margined annual bindweed, 
usually though improperly called Convolvulus 
Minor, and even its white-flowered variety, often 
but improperly called Convolvulus Alba,—these 
plants, the Convolvulus tricolor and the Oonvol- 
vulus tricolor albifiorus of botanists—are so very 
generally known amongst even cottage florists, 
BIRCH. 421 
as to need no description—The great annual 
purple bindweed, and its flesh-coloured, varie- 
gated, and white-flowered varieties, are also well 
known under the erroneous name of Convolvulus 
major ; they were formerly designated by bo- 
tanists Convolvulus purpurea, but are now ranked 
as ipomoeas ; and they usually grow twiningly 
to the height of about 10 feet, and have a very 
elegant and showy appearance.—The chief of the 
other ornamental convolvuli at present cultivated 
in the gardens of Britain are the hardy annual 
Convolvulus discolor, C. hirtus, C. disectus, C. nit, 
and C. pentapetaloides,—the hardy perennials C. 
spithamea, C. altheoides, and C. lineatus,—the 
greenhouse woody perennials, C. cneorum, C. has- 
tatus,—and the stove perennials, 0. flagelliformis, 
C. glaber, and C. speciosus— Miller's Dictionary.— 
Mawe’s Calendar —Loudon’s Hortus Britannicus. 
—Withering’s Botany.—Lisle’s Husbandry —Mill’s 
Husbandry —Thomson’s Materia Medica. 
BINDWEED (Rove), —botanically Smilax 
aspera. A hardy, deciduous, dicecious, climbing 
plant, of the smilax genus. It is sometimes 
called prickly bindweed, and sometimes Italian 
smilax. It is a native of Sicily, Italy, Spain, and 
France, and was introduced to Europe about the 
middle of the 17th century. Its root is long, 
creeping, white, and fleshy ; its stems are numer- 
ous, slender, angular, provided with claspers, and 
armed with strong, short, crooked spines, and, if 
supported, grow to the height of ten or twelve 
feet; its leaves are cordate, acutely pointed, in- 
dented, of a fine dark green colour, with short 
spines on their edges, and standing on somewhat 
long petioles; and its flowers are inconspicuous, 
grow from the wings of the stalks, and appear in 
June and July. A principal variety of it, S. A. 
auriculata, is distinguished by ear-shaped leaves. 
BINDWITH. See Cremartis, 
BINN. See Bry. 
BIRCH, — botanically Betula. A genus of 
hardy timber and ornamental trees and shrubs, 
of the amentaceous tribe. It forms the type of 
one of the subdivisions of that tribe, comprising 
the genera Letula, Carpinus, Alnus, and Ostrya. 
This subdivision, called Betulineze or Betulacez, 
is distinguished from all other amentaceous 
genera by its flat, one-sided, two-celled meim- 
branous fruit, and by its pendulous ovules; and 
it is exceedingly well represented by the com- 
mon or white birch. All the species are either 
trees or shrubs, and grow indigenously in only 
the colder parts of the world. 
The birch genus comprises about nineteen spe- 
cles, exclusive of varieties; it occupies at once a 
conspicuous, an ornamental, and an useful place 
in the sylva of the northern hemisphere north of 
the tropics; and it is known to the popular eye 
by its shining bark, its neat small leaves, and its 
profusion of spray, and characterized to the eye 
of a botanist by the conformation of its fruit, vul- 
garly called birch seeds,—the scales being thin 
and three-lobed, and the fruits subtended by them 
