E. vulgàre, L. (Blue-weed.) Rough-bristly biennial; stem erect (2° high), mostly simple; stem-leaves linear-lanceolate, sessile; flowers showy, in short lateral clusters, disposed in a long and narrow thyrsus; corolla reddish-purple changing to brilliant blue (rarely pale).—Roadsides and meadows of the Middle Atlantic States. June. (Nat. from Eu.)
Order 73. CONVOLVULÀCEÆ. (Convolvulus Family.)
Chiefly twining or trailing herbs, often with some milky juice, with alternate leaves (or scales) and regular 5-androus flowers; a calyx of 5 imbricated sepals, a 5-plaited or 5-lobed corolla convolute or twisted in the bud (imbricate in n. 6); a 2-celled (rarely 3-celled) ovary (or in one tribe 2 separate pistils), with a pair of erect ovules in each cell, the cells sometimes doubled by a false partition between the seeds, so becoming 4-celled; the embryo large, curved or coiled in mucilaginous albumen.—Fruit a globular 2–6-seeded capsule. Flowers mostly showy, on axillary peduncles; pedicels articulated, often 2-bracted. (Many are cultivated for ornament, and one, the Sweet Potato, for its edible farinaceous roots, those of several species are cathartic; e.g. Jalap.)
Tribe I. DICHONDREÆ. Carpels 2 or 4, distinct or nearly so; styles 2 basilar. Creeping herbs.
1. Dichondra. Corolla deeply 5-cleft. Pistils 2, one-seeded.
Tribe II. CONVOLVULEÆ. Ovary entire. Leafy plants, mostly twiners.
2. Ipomœa. Style undivided, with stigma capitate or 2–3-globose.
3. Convolvulus. Style undivided or 2-cleft only at apex; stigmas 2, linear-filiform to subulate or ovate.
4. Breweria. Style 2-cleft or 2-parted; the divisions simple; stigmas capitate.
5. Evolvulus. Styles 2, each 2-cleft; stigmas linear-filiform. Not twining.