172 



BIG 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



BIG 



also be increased by cuttings, and some of them by layers. 



The species are, 



1. Bignonia Catalpa ; Common Catalpa Tree. Leaves sim- 

 ple, cordate ; stem erect ; seeds winged with membranes. A 

 deciduous tree, with a smooth brown bark, thirty or forty feet 

 high ; with lateral branches ; ovate-leaves ; and the flowers in 

 branching panicles, of a dirty white colour, with purple spots, 

 and faint stripes of yellow inside. The branches dye wool a 

 kind of cinnamon colour. Thunberg mentions, that the Japa- 

 nese lay the leaves on parts of the body affected with pains, 

 supposing them to be beneficial to the nerves : and that a 

 decoction of the pods is esteemed useful in the asthma. 

 The seeds of this tree are usually imported from South Caro- 

 lina. The seedling plants should be placed abroad in the 

 beginning of June, in a sheltered situation, till autumn, when 

 they should be placed under a common frame, to screen them 

 from frost in winter ; but in mild weather they must be fully 

 exposed to the open air. The following spring they may bo 

 taken out of the pots, and planted in a nursery-bed in a warm 

 situation, where they may remain two years to get strength, 

 and be afterwards planted where they are designed to remain. 

 These plants, when young, are frequently injured by frost, 

 for they shoot pretty late in autumn, so that the early frosts 

 often kill the extremity of their branches ; but as the plants 

 .'.dvance in strength, they become more hardy, and are seldom 

 injured but in very severe winters. It is late in the spring 

 before the leaves come out, which has often caused persons 

 to believe they were dead, and some have been so imprudent 

 as to cut them down on that supposition, before the tree was 

 well known. This tree may also be propagated by cuttings, 

 which should be planted in pots in the spring, and plunged 

 into a moderate hot-bed, observing to shade them from the 

 sun in the middle of the day, and refresh them occasionally 

 with water. In about six weeks these will have taken root, 

 and made shoots above, so should have plenty of air admitted 

 to them, and be hardened by degrees to bear the open air. 

 They must be treated in the same manner as the seedling 

 plants, and the spring following planted out into a nursery- 

 bed, as is before directed. The Catalpa delights in a rich 

 moist soil, where it will make great progress, and in a few 

 years produce flowers. 



2. Bignonia Tomentosa. Leaves simple, cordate, tomen- 

 tose beneath ; flowers axillary, panicled. Native of Japan. 



3. Bigubnia Sempervirens ; Carolina Yellow Jasmine. 

 Leaves simple, lanceolate ; stem twining, rising to a consider- 

 able height on the neighbouring plants. It grows naturally 

 in South Carolina, where it spreads over the hedges, and at 

 the season of flowering, perfumes the air to a great distance ; 

 also sparingly in Virginia. The inhabitants call it Yellow 

 Jasmine, probably from the sweet odour of its flowers. 

 The young plants are impatient of cold, so must be sheltered 

 in the winter until they have obtained strength, when they 

 should be planted against a warm wall, and in winter pro- 

 tected from frost by a covering of mats, and the ground 

 about their roots covered with tan. 



4. Bignonia Unguis. Leaves conjugate ; tendril very 

 short, bowed, three-parted. Native of the West Indies. It 

 will live in the open air, if planted against a wall that has a 

 south aspect, and sheltered in very severe frost. 



5. Bignonia yKquinoctialis. Leaves conjugate, cirrhose ; 

 leaflets ovate-lanceolate ; peduncles two-flowered ; siliques 

 linear. Native of New Spain. See the fourth species. 



6. Bignonia Paniculata. Leaves conjugate, cirrhose ; 

 leaflets cordate-ovate ; flowers racemed ; peduncles three- 

 flowered. Native of South America. It will not thrive in 

 this country, except kept in the bark-stove. 



7. Bignonia Crucigera. Leaves conjugate, cirrhose ; 

 leaflets cordate ; stem muricated. Native of Campeuchy. 

 See the preceding species. 



8. Bignonia Capreolata ; Four-leaved Trumpet-footer. 

 Leaves conjugate, cirrhose ; leaflets cordate-lanceolate ; 

 bottom leaves simple. Native of Virginia and Carolina. 

 See the sixth and twelfth species. 



9. Bignonia Pubescens. Leaves conjugate, cirrhose ; 

 leaflets cordate-ovate, pubescent beneath. It grows na- 

 turally in Virginia, and several other parts of America. 

 When tliis sort is planted in the full ground against a wall, 

 the roots should be covered in autumn with some old 

 tanner's bark, to keep out the frost in winter ; and in very 

 severe frost, the branches should be covered with mats. 



10. Bignonia Triphylla ; Three-lcated Trumpet -flower. 

 Leaves ternate ; leaflets ovate, acuminate ; stem shrubby, 

 erect. Native of South America. See the sixth species. 



11. Bignonia Pentaphylla; Hairy Fire-leaved Trum/wt- 

 jiower. Leaves digitate ; leaflets quite entire, obovate. 



Native of Jamaica. See the sixth species. 



12. Bignonia Leucoxylon ; Smooth Five-leaved Trumpet- 

 flower, White Wood, or Tulip-Jloicer. Leaves digitate ; leaf- 

 lets quite entire, ovate, acuminate. It rises with an uprigh 

 stem forty feet high. Native of Jamaica. It will take root 

 from cuttings planted during summer in pots, and plunged 

 into a bark-bed : the wood is very hard and white. 



13. Bignonia Radiata; Ray-leaved Trumpet-Jlower. Leaves 

 digitate ; leaflets pinnatifid ; stem three inches high ; co- 

 rolla pale yellow. Native of very dry sand in Peru. 



14. Bignonia Radicans ; Rooting or Ash-leaved Trumpet- 

 Jlower. Leaves pinnate ; leaflets gashed ; stem with rooting 

 joints ; flowers at the ends of the new shoots, in large 

 bunches, with long swelling tubes, shaped like a trumpet : 

 corolla of an orange colour, opening at the beginning of 

 August. Native of Carolina. This kind is hardy enough to 

 thrive in the open air ; but as the branches trail, they must 

 be supported ; it is therefore usually planted against walls or 

 buildings, where, if the branches have room, it will spread 

 to a great distance, and rise very high, forty or fifty feet ; it 

 is therefore very convenient for covering unsightly buildings. 

 It may also be trained up against the stems of trees, where, 

 by proper management, it will make a fine appearance when 

 in flower. It is propagated by seeds, but the young plants, 

 so raised, do not flower in less than seven or eight year-. : 

 therefore those which are propagated by cuttings, or layers 

 from flowering plants, are most esteemed, because they will 

 flower in two or three years after planting. The culture 

 necessary for these plants, after they are established, is to 

 cut away all the small weak shoots of the former year in 

 winter, and shorten the strong ones to about two feet long, 

 that young shoots may be obtained for flowering the follow- 

 ing summer. These plants are of long duration. 



15. Bignonia Stans ; Branchinsz-fluwrri-d Tranipet-Jiuircr. 

 Leaves pinnate ;. leaflets serrate ; stem erect, firm ; flowers 

 racemed, yellow, with red lines in the inside of the tube. 

 Native of all the sugar islands in the West Indies, chit-fly in a 

 dry rocky or gravelly soil. It is propagated by seeds sewn 

 on a hot-bed,' and the plants afterwards transplanted into 

 separate small pots, filled with light fresh earth, and plunged 

 into a fresh hot-bed ; in the autumn they must be removed 

 into the bark-stove, and during the winter should have but 

 little water, and in summer refreshing them with it sparingly. 

 The plants should constantly remain in the bark-stove, and 

 be treated in the same manner as other tender plants from 

 hot countries. The third year from the seed they will flower, 

 but they do not produce seeds in England. 



