Flowers and Their Friends

How flowers and insects came to need each other, explained to children by a teacher who refused to talk down — “it would be very stupid indeed to try to read a book written in Arabic,” she begins, so look up every word you don't know.

Home › Morning-Glory Stories › Morning-Glory Stories: Convolvulus

Morning-Glory Stories: Convolvulus

Several members of the Convolvulus Family have the same medicinal properties as jalap, and one in particular, whose name is scammony, is very highly esteemed.

It has an uncommonly bad taste, and its swollen roots are brought all the way from Syria and Asia Minor, not because of their bad taste, but because of their power as a medicine. The scammony, like the jalap, is a pretty plant in spite of its bad-tasting, medicinal roots.

Most of the Convolvulaceæ have a milky, bitter juice, - even our pretty, SCAMMONY. harmless morning-glories, - and in the jalap and scammony this seems to be exaggerated in quality and quantity.

milky, bitter juice, - even our pretty,
milky, bitter juice, - even our pretty,

Read next

← Morning-Glory Stories (Quite another use In fact)Morning-Glory Stories: Convolvulaceæ →