PLANTS AND ANIMALS OF THE ATLANTIC AND GULF STATES 



745 



cies hovering over a cluster of them. But the flowers 

 bear but a very faint resemblance to specimens as they 

 occur in nature, or as the camera has depicted them in 

 Figure 3. 



Our Trumpet-creeper belongs in the Bignonia family 

 (Bignoiiiaceae), and has been named Tecoma radicans, 

 it being the only representative of its genus in this part 

 of the world. Associated with it in the same family wf 

 have the Catalpa or Indian Bean (Catalpa spcciosa), also 

 the sole species of its genus, though Gray tells us that 

 there is " a low much branched tree, with thin bark and a 

 smaller corolla," and so on, which by Thomas Walter has 

 been designated as Catalpa bigiwiwidcs, and which is 



localities, the well-known Virginia Ground Cherry, the 

 highly attractive fruit of which, when ripe, is feasted 

 u]jon by numerous species of birds of the region where it 

 is found. Among the latter may be mentioned such spe- 

 cies as our bluebirds and robins, and they, with others, 

 love the places where this plant thrives best — on our 

 hillsides, in pasture-lands, and on open ground gen- 

 erally. In describing this plant, F. Schuyler Mathews 

 tells us that it is a "branching and erect-stemmed 

 species, mostly smooth. The ovate, lance-shaped leaves, 

 tapering toward both ends, very slightly shallow-toothed 

 and light green. The flower dull pale yellow with 

 five brown-])urple spots ; anthers deep yellow. The 



SPINY SWIFTS, OR LIZARDS, MAKE INTERESTING PETS SOMETIMES 

 Fig. 7 — In the United States we. have a genus of land lizards, to which the name of Swift has heen given, for the reason that they can run with 

 such astonishing rapidity. There are some fifteen species of them, and they all fall in the genus Scclof>orus. They inhabit different ranges in 

 different sections of the country, altliough several may occur in the same range The one shown in the cut is one of the largest of the group, and has 

 been called the Spiny Swift (5. sf^inosxts) on account of the spiny charac-ter of its scales. It occurs in great numbers in Mexico, and from there 

 it ranges northward and eastward from western Texas and New Me.xico to western Florida. It has a length, when adult, of nearly ten inches. 



here defined as the Southern Cigar Tree or Southern 

 Catawba Tree, to distinguish it from its northern rela- 

 tive. Finally we have in this Bignonia genus the Cross- 

 vine {B. capreolata), a most interesting climber, which 

 exhibits a "cross" on the surface exposed by a trans- 

 verse section of its stem. It climbs u]) into trees, and 

 flourishes in rich soil from Virginia to Florida, westward 

 to include Ohio, Illinois and Louisiana. Most of the Big- 

 nonias have been cultivated as ornamental trees and vines 

 and may frequently be seen in our gardens or on our 

 estates. 



From New York to Manitoba, and southward to the 

 tier of states bounding the Gulf, we may meet, in suitable 



stigma matures before the anthers, and extends beyond 

 them. Fertilized by the honey-bee and the bees of the 

 genus Halictiis ; Halictus pectinatus is a common visitor 

 (Professor Robertson). The reddish berry enclosed 

 within the enlarged calyx. One to three feet high." 

 There is an insect that feeds upon the leaves of these 

 plants and riddles them with fine jjerforations, but 

 one of the most interesting things about it is the 

 manner in which the calyx becomes skeletonized, 

 admitting of a view of the fruit inside. When a large 

 cluster of them has passed to this stage, it is certainly a 

 very beautiful object, when held up to the sun in such a 

 way as to observe the lighting up of the whole structure 



