[Illustration:  No 112]

One of the most ornamental hardy shrubs we possess; at once pleasing to the eye, and grateful to the smell; for, as MILLER observes, the whole plant in warm weather exudes a sweet glutinous substance, which has a very strong balsamic scent, so as to perfume the circumambient air to a great distance.

Its blossoms, which appear in June and July in great profusion, exhibit a remarkable instance of quickly-fading beauty, opening and expanding to the morning sun, and before night strewing the ground with their elegant remains:  as each succeeding day produces new blossoms, this deciduous disposition of the petals, common to the genus, is the less to be regretted.

Is a native of Spain and Portugal, prefers a dry soil and warm sheltered situation, and in very severe seasons requires some kind of covering.

Cultivated 1656, by Mr. JOHN TRADESCANT, jun. Ait.  Hort.  Kew.

Is readily increased from cuttings; but MILLER remarks, that the best plants are raised from seeds.

Varies with waved leaves, and in having petals without a spot at the base.

Is not the plant from whence the Ladanum of the shops is produced, though affording in warmer countries than ours a similar gum, hence its name of ladanifera is not strictly proper.

[113]

CONVOLVULUS PURPUREUS.  PURPLE BINDWEED, or CONVOLVULUS
MAJOR.

Class and Order.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Generic Character.

Corolla campanulata, plicata. Stigmata 2. Capsula 2-locularis;
      loculis dispermis.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

CONVOLVULUS purpureus foliis cordatis indivisis, fructibus cernuis,
      pedicellis incrassatis. Linn.  Syst.  Vegetab. ed. 14. Murr. p.
      200.

CONVOLVULUS purpureus folio subrotundo. Bauh.  Pin. 295.

CONVOLVULUS caeruleus major rotundifolius.  The greater blew Bindweede or
      Bell-flower with round leaves. Park.  Parad. p. 358.

[Illustration:  No 113]

“Is an annual plant which grows naturally in Asia and America, but has been long cultivated for ornament in the English gardens, and is generally known by the title of Convolvulus major.  Of this there are three or four lasting varieties; the most common hath a purple flower, but there is one with a white, another with a red, and one with a whitish-blue flower, which hath white seeds.  All these varieties I have cultivated many years, without observing them to change.  If the seeds of these sorts are sown in the spring, upon a warm border where the plants are designed to remain, they will require no other culture but to keep them clear from weeds, and place some tall stakes down by them, for their stalks to twine about, otherwise they will spread on the ground and make a bad appearance.  These plants, if they are properly supported, will rise ten or twelve feet high in warm Summers:  they flower in June, July, and August, and will continue till the frost kills them.  Their seeds ripen in Autumn.” Miller’s Gard.  Dict. ed. 4to. 1771.