Red and Indefinites 



until his beloved gladioli, cannas, honeysuckles, nasturtiums, and 

 salvia succumb to frost. 



Where a trumpet vine climbs with the help of its aerial roots, 

 like an ivy's, and sends forth clusters of brilliant tubes at the tips 

 of long, wiry branches, there one is sure to see, sooner or later, 

 the ruby-throat flashing, whirring, darting from flower to flower. 

 Eight birds at once were counted about a vine one sunny morn- 

 ing. The next, a pair of tame pigeons walked over the roof of 

 the summer-house where the creeper grew luxuriantly, and punc- 

 tured, with a pop that was distinctly heard fifty feet away, the base 

 of every newly opened nectar-filled trumpet on it ! That after7 

 noon all the corollas discolored, and no hummers came near. 



Coral or Trumpet Honeysuckle 



{Lom'cera sempervirens) Honeysuckle family 



Flowers — Red outside, orange yellow within ; whorled round ter- 

 minal spikes. Calyx insignificant ; corolla tubular, slender, 

 lyi in, long or less, slightly spread below the 5-lobed limb ; 

 5 stamens ; i pistil. Stem : A high, twining vine. Leaves : 

 Evergreen in the South only ; opposite, rounded oval, dark, 

 shining green above, the upper leaves united around the stem 

 by their bases to form a cup. Fruit: An interrupted spike 

 of deep orange-red berries. 



Preferred Habitat— K\(i\\, light, warm soil ; hillsides, thickets. 



Flowering Season — April — September. 



Distribution — Connecticut, westward to Nebraska, and south to 

 the Gulf States. Occasionally escaped from cultivation 

 farther north. 



Small-flowered bush honeysuckles elected to serve and be 

 served by bees ; those with longer tubes welcomed bumblebees ; 

 the white and yellow flowered twining honeysuckles, deep of 

 tube and deliciously fragrant, especially after dark, when they are 

 still visible, cater to the sphinx moths (see pp. 337-340) ; but 

 surely the longest-tongued bumblebee could not plumb the depths 

 of this slender-tubed trumpet honeysuckle, nor the night-flying 

 moth discover a flower that has melted into the prevailing dark- 

 ness when he begins his rounds, and takes no pains to guide him 

 with perfume. What creature, then, does it cater to } After 

 reading of the aims of the trumpet-flower on the preceding page, 

 no one will be surprised to hear that the ruby-throated humming 

 bird's visits are responsible for most of the berries that follow 

 these charming, generous, abundant flowers, so eminently to his 

 liking. Larger migrants than he, in search of fare so attractive, 



391 



