ORNAMENTAL PALMS 259 



Nor may the lips be pried apart. They open 

 spontaneously, however, after a time, but usually 

 not until the patience of the operator has been 

 exhausted. It is a curious and interesting experi- 

 ment to irritate the stigmatic surface with a grass 

 stem or twig, which will be grasped as the trap- 

 like stigma closes, and held as a frog might hold 

 a stick in its mouth. The same remarks apply 

 also to the unrelated Mimulus or monkey flower. 



Another ornamental vine that offers oppor- 

 tunities for the plant developer is the familiar 

 and beautiful Wistaria. 



There is a fair degree of variation among the 

 different types of wistaria, some bearing blue 

 flowers and others white ones. The plants of this 

 genus are not only valuable as climbers, covering 

 walls and arbors with vines that bear beautiful 

 flowers, but they can also be trained to form tree- 

 like bushes that are most attractive additions to 

 the lawn. The Chinese wistaria is ordinarily a 

 long vine, but may be trained to a bush five feet 

 across and thrive fully as well. Under this mode 

 of culture, a certain amount of energy that would 

 ordinarily go to the production of the vine itself 

 is saved and utilized for flower production, so 

 that wistaria bushes thus trained become aston- 

 ishing bearers of blossoms, like gigantic 

 bouquets. 



