89. CATALPA BIGNONIOIDES CATALPA, BEAN TKEE. 31 



ORDER BIGNONIAOEAE : BIGXONIA FAMILY. 



Leaves simple or compound, opposite (rarely alternate), exstipulate. Flowers per- 

 fect, rather large and showy ; calyx 2-lipped, or 5-cleft or entire ; corolla monopeta- 

 lous, tubular or bell-shaped, irregular, 5-lobed or 2-lipped, the lowest lobe the 

 largest ; stamens 5, but only 2 or 2 pairs being fertile (the others existing as rudi- 

 ments) inserted on the corolla, anthers with 2 diverging cells ; pistil solitary with 

 superior 2-celled (rarely 1 -celled) ovary, long style, 2-lipped stigma and numerous aua- 

 tropous ovules. Fruit a dry coriaceous 2-valved deliscent capsular pod with num- 

 erous large flat and usually winged seeds. 



Woody plants chiefly of the tropics. 



GENUS CATALPA, SCOPPOLI. 



Leaves simple, opposite or verticillate (rarely alternate), exstipulate, ovate or cor- 

 date, entire or lobed, long-petiolate, involute in vernation. Flowersiu large terminal 

 compound panicles or corymbs, with calyx deeply 2-lipped with broad ovate, entire 

 lobes ; corolla thin and membraneous, bell-shaped, with tube inflated and border 

 undulate, irregularly 5-lobed and 2-lipped, spreading white or yellow and spotted 

 within ; stamens 2 fertile and 3 sterile (or sometimes 4 fertile and 1 sterile), inserted 

 on the corolla near its base ; anthers introrse ; style exserted and stigma 2-lobed ; 

 ovary with many ovules on a central placenta. Fruit a long, slender, coriacious and 

 nearly cylindrical capsule, with two cells and numerous flat seeds inserted on a cen- 

 tral septum and furnished on either side with broad wings fringed with white hairs. 



Trees with watery juices and large-pithed branchlets. (Catalpa is said to be the 

 Cherokee Indian name of one of the species.) 



89. CATALPA BIGNONIOIDES, WALTER.* 

 CATALPA, BEAN-TREE, CIGAR-TREE. 



G-er., Trompetenbaum ; Fr., Bois Shavanon; Sp., Catalpa. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves broad-ovate, abruptly narrowed to a short pointed 

 or o-lobed apex, cordate at base, entire, thin, tomentose when young, glabrous above, 

 paler and pubescent below at maturity, veins prominent, coming together near the 

 margins and furnished in the axils with dark glands, of disagreeable odor when 

 bruised, 10 to 12 inches or more in length, half being taken up by the terete petiole. 

 Flowers (appearing in July in the north) numerous, in large, crowded pubescent 

 panicles, often 10 in. in length ; corolla white, nearly 2 in. in length and but slightly 

 less in width, when fully expanded, marked within on the lower side with two 

 orange-yellow parallel bands or blotches, and elsewhere thickly dotted with purple 

 spots. Fruit, pods nearly terete, slender, a third of an inch or less in diameter and 

 averaging 10 to 15 in. in length, with thin wall, remaining on the tree and closed 

 until spring when they open by two valves and liberate the thin membranous seeds 

 with fringe-tipped wings about 1 in. in length and in. in width. 



A wide-spreading handsome tree, not often over 50 ft. (15 m.) in 

 height nor with a trunk more than 2 ft. (0.75 m.) in diameter, clothed 

 in light reddish brown bark, flaking off when old in irregular scales. 

 It is a striking and beautiful tree when in blossom, and the presence of 

 its long round pods when leafless in winter gives it then a very character- 

 istic appearance. 



HABITAT. Found apparently native from southwestern Georgia and 

 western Florida, westward to the Mississippi river, in rich moist soil 



* Catalpa Catalpa, Karsten. 



