240 THE TRUMPET-PLOWEK FAMILY. 



a few species of AscUpias^ Gompliocdrpus, Ceropegia, and Stapelia. 

 But these latter are rare. Out of doors is sometimes cultivated the 

 tall, scrambling, purple-flowered Periploca Grceca. 



LXXI.— THE TRUMPET-FLOWER FAMILY. BignonidcetB. 



The tropics, both of the old and the new world, are the principal 

 habitations of this noble family, which in Europe is unknown in the 

 wild state. It comprises trees, shrubs, and a few herbaceous plants, 

 the latter often of a twining or climbing habit, and it is these which 

 are chiefly in cultivation. They comprise the Calampelis or Eccre- 

 mocdrpus scaler, and several difierent species of Bignonia, such as 

 rddicans, Cherere, and capreoldta. The leaves are opposite, and usually 

 pinnate or doubly temate, and tendrilled ; the flowers in panicles, 

 large and handsome, and of various colours, red and yellow pre- 

 dominating, and in the Bignonias distended and "trumpet-shaped." 

 They bear a good deal of external likeness to the Foxglove Family, 

 and in the mere form of the flower there is nothing that wiU abso- 

 lutely distinguish them. The difierence lies entirely in the seeds, 

 which are provided with a broad and membranous border, and have a 

 large and leafy embryo. Those of one of the great American arbo- 

 rescent species, the Bignonia echindta, rank with the most wonderful 

 and beautiful objects of the vegetable kingdom. They are contained 

 in a hard brown pod, seven or eight inches long by two in breadth, 

 and rough over its whole surface with blunted asperities. The pod is 

 divided into two compartments by a kind of loose floor, on either side 

 of which the seeds are disposed in layers, every one of them an inch 

 and a half or two inches in length, and resembling a butterfly with 

 transparent and opened wings. The seeds of the Calampelis, pro- 

 curable at the shops, though small, exhibit equally well the family 

 character. In all the species the corolla is irregular, four or five- 

 lobed, and widened in the throat ; the stamens are in reality five, 

 but one of them is always destitute of its anther ; the ovary is soli- 

 tary and two-celled. Out of doors there is sometimes seen a small 

 .specimen of that noble tree, the Catulpa, known by its large cordate 

 leaves, and when it blooms, which is rarely, by its whitish flowers, 

 with purple and yellow spots. 



