| 释义 |
convolvulus|kənˈvɒlvjʊləs|
Pl. -luses, rarely -li.
[a. L. convolvulus the bindweed (also a caterpillar that rolls itself up in a leaf), Pliny, f. convolvĕre (see convolve), with dim. suffix.]
1. A genus of plants, containing many species, found in temperate and sub-tropical climates, having slender twining stems and trumpet-shaped flowers. The English wild species are known as bindweeds. convolvulus minor and convolvulus major are florist's names of well-known garden annuals.
1551Turner Herbal i. L vj b, Mesue describeth diverse kindes of Convolvulus. 1597Gerarde Herbal (1636) 865 Convolvulus or Bindweed. 1640Parkinson Theat. Bot. 170 This and other Convolvuli [being] herbaceous and annual. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 197 Set Leucoium..Lupines, Convolvolus's. 1740Mrs. Delany Autobiog. & Corr. (1861) II. 73 Her clothes were embroidered upon white satin, with vine-leaves and convolvulus's and rose-buds. 1848C. Brontë J. Eyre iii, Bird of paradise, nestling in a wreath of convolvuli and rosebuds. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 577 The lustre of the long convolvuluses That coil'd around the stately stems. 1872Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 211 The blue Convolvulus minor of gardens (correctly C. tricolor) is a native of the South of Europe. The Major Convolvulus (Pharbitis purpurea), common in the Tropics, is probably an American species.
b. attrib., as convolvulus moth, a species of Hawkmoth (Sphinx convolvuli).
1854Medlock tr. Schoedler's Bk. Nat. (ed. 2) 566 The convolvulus moth (Sphinx convolvuli), the death's head moth, etc. 1869E. Newman Brit. Moths 6 The Convolvulus Hawk Moth..The caterpillar..is said to feed on the bindweed.
†2. A caterpillar that rolls itself up in a leaf.
1634Holland Pliny I. 547 To preuent..that worme convolvulus bred not in a vine, hee appointed, etc. |