740 CONVOLVULACEAE. [ !pomoea. 
fruit or rarely spreading. Corolla campanulate or funnel-shaped; tube 
long or short; limb entire or 5-angled, more rarely slightly 5-lobed. 
Stamens included or exserted, often unequal ; filaments filiform or dilated 
at the base; anthers oblong or linear, ultimately twisted or straight. 
Ovary 2-celled, 4-ovuled, rarely 4-celled and 4-ovuled or 3-celled and 
6-ovuled; style filiform; stigma entire and capitate, or shortly 2-lobed 
with globular lobes. Capsule globose or ovoid, 4- or rarely 2—3-valved, 
Seeds as many as the ovules or fewer, glabrous or pubescent. 
Taken in a wide sense, this is a genus of between 300 and 400 species, spread 
through all warm climates. Both the New Zealand species have a wide range in 
tropical countries. 
Leaves digitately divided .. . 1. 1. palmata, 
Leaves obtusely 2-lobed, thick and fleshy 3 a .. 2. £. pes-caprae, 
The kumara or sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas Lamk., Convolvulus chrysorhizus 
Forst.) was introduced by the Maoris from Polynesia when they first colonized New 
Zealand, and constituted their chief vegetable food when the country became known 
to Kuropeans. It is still extensively grown, but has no claim to be included among 
the indigenous species. 
1. I. palmata Porsk. Fl. Lgypt. Arab. (1775) 43—A slender glabrous 
twiner ; stems many feet in length, the old ones more or less tuberculate. 
Leaves 1-3in. diam., digitately divided almost to the base; lobes 5-7, 
lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse or subacute, entire or the outer 
ones irregularly lobed, rather membranous. Peduncles ereet. 1—2 in. lane 
]-3-flowered. Se} © ~ 
large, 2-31n. dia. 
sin. diam., ovoic 
Fl, Austral. iv (18 
R. Br. Prodr, (18 
(1846) 44; Hook. 
Schultes Syst. iv ( 
KERMADEC IsL/ 
W. R. B. Oliver! WN 
and Hokianga; Wh. 
Island, A. Hansen / December—April. 
wer — Km ooo ea ee 
An abundant plant in the tropics of both hemispheres, attaining its southern 
limit in New Zealand. 
(iL) 
2. 1. pes-caprae Roth. Nov. Sp. Plant. (1821) 109.—Perfectly glabrous ; 
stems prostrate or trailing, sometimes 40 ft. long. Leaves on petioles 
1-4in. long; blade often broader than long, 1-4 in. across, orbicular or 
broadly obovate or oblong, emarginate or shortly and obtusely 2-lobed, 
thick and fleshy, prominently veined. Peduncles about as long as the 
leaves, 1-3-flowered. Sepals ovate, obtuse. Corolla 1-2 in. diam., broadly 
campanulate with a somewhat tubular base, purplish or pink. Capsule 
a-¢1n. long, ovoid-globose, coriaceous, 2-celled. Seeds large, hairy.— 
Benth. Fl. Austral. iv (1869) 419; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx (1888) 
Wil; Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 474. TAansd. yYr-17. 
Kermapec Istanps: Sunday Island, abundant in the sandy bays and on some 
of the cliffs, 7. F. C., W. RB. B. Oliver! Plentiful on all tropical shores. 
- 
> (+ Fe, ; ——*, ' a. 
” 
