VINCA 



BB. Foliage deciduous, or less evergreen. 



3. herb&cea.Waldst. & Kit. Herbaceous Periwinkle. 

 Hardy trailing herb, whicli generally loses its foliage in 

 winter, seuils up short flowering stems in spring, fol- 

 lowed by sterile creeping stems which root at the tips. 

 The Hs.'are purpler than in the common Periwinkle, 

 later, and the corolla-lobes are narrower: Ivs. elliptical 

 or lanceolate, margin revolute, ciliate; petiole with 2 

 glands near the middle: calyx-lobes narrowly lanceo- 

 late, ciliolate; corolla-lobes oblong-obovate, dimidiate. 

 Eastern Eu., Asia Minor. B.M. 2002. B.R. 4:301. 



AA. Tender, erect suhshnib (herb N.), with rosy or 

 white f Is, produced all summer. 



4. rdsea, Linn. Madagascar Periwinkle. Fig. 2U72. 

 Tender, erect, everblooming plant, somewhat shrubby 

 at the base, cosmopolitan in the tropics: Ivs. oblong, 

 narrowed at base, veiny: petiole glandular at the base, 

 fls. with a very small orifice, rosy purple or white, the 

 latter with or without a reddish eye; calyx-lobes 

 corolla-lobes dimidiate-obovate, mucronulate. Gn. 35, 

 p. 455; 43, p. 389. V. 13:49; 16:49. B.M. 248. F.R. 

 1:141.— This is commonly called the "Madagascar Peri- 

 winkle," but r. rosea is probably not native to the Old 

 World, while the only species of Vinca that is really na- 

 tive to Madagascar, viz., V. lancea, is not in cultiva- 

 tion. The plant is sometimes called "Cape Periwinkle " 

 and "Old Maid." The three main types should be 

 known as I', rosen, I', rosea, var. alba, and V. rosea, 

 var. oculata, the latter being a white flower with pink 

 or red center. As a matter of fact, these appear in 

 American catalogues as T'. alba, V. alba pnra, ('. alba 

 nova, V. ocnhitd and ('. varius, the latter beinga trade 

 name for seed of mixed varieties. y^ 5j_ 



VINCETOXICUM. The Mosquito Plant or Cruel 

 Plant, known in the trade as Vincetoxicum acumina- 

 tum and V. Japonicum, is Cynanchum. acuminatifo- 

 lium, which see. 



VINE-CACTUS. Fouquieria splendens. 



VINE, GLOKY. Clianthus. 



VINE PEACH. See under Cucvmis Melo. 



VINE, PIPE. Aristoloehia Sipho. 



VINE, SILK. See Periploca Graca. 



VINE, WONGA WONGA. Tecoma australis. 



VINES. In horticultural parlance, a vine is a weak- 

 stemmed, more or less tall-growing plant that needs to 

 have the support of some rigid object to hold it above 

 the earth. Many plants that are grown for their eco- 

 nomic uses are vines, although they are ordinarily not 

 so classified in horticultural works;' for example, 

 of the beans, the hop and the sweet potato plant. When 

 vines are mentioned in horticultural writings, plants 

 that are used for ornament are commonly understood. 

 In general literature the term "vine," when used spe- 

 cifically, designates the grape. Sometimes vegetable- 

 gardeners, when speaking of vines, mean cucurbita- 

 ceous plants, as melons, cucumbers and squashes. 



Vines belong to many natural orders and represent 

 very many types of plant beauty. The larger part of 

 them are useful in horticultural operations as screens 

 for covering unsightly objects or for shading verandas 

 and summer houses. Many of them are shrubs,the plant 

 body being woody and persisting year after year; others 

 are perennial herbs, dying to the ground but the root 

 persisting from year to year, as some dioscoreas; others 

 are true annual herbs, as morning-glories. Some of 

 them are valued chiefly for foliage, as the Virginia 

 creeper, Japanese ivy, grapes and the true or English 

 ivy; others are prized largely for their flowers, as morn- 

 ing-glories, moonflowers and scarlet runners. Vines 

 represent all degrees of hardiness or tenderness; they 

 are also of various heights and differ in rapidity of 

 growth ; therefore it is impossible to make a list of vines 

 that shall apply to the whole country. 



122 



VINES 1935 



Vines are really climbing plants. They get up in the 

 world in three general ways: by scrambling or clam- 

 bering over other plants without any special devices 

 for aiding them in the ascent; by twining about the 

 support; by ascending by means of special organs, as 

 roots or tendrils. The larger number of cultivated 

 climbing plants belong to the last two categories. 

 However, there are many useful climbers amongst 

 the scramblers, as, for example, some of ^he long- 

 stemmed roses. These plants usually have to be tied to 

 a support unless they are allowed to ramble at will over 

 some expanded surface, as the top of a bush or a broad 

 stone wall. 



Each species of twining plant has its own direction of 

 winding about the support, and the species follows this 

 direction under all ordinary circumstances. Some of 

 them, as the hops, wind about the support in the direc- 



2673. Hop (Humulus Japon- 2674. Mornineelory.twinioe 



icus), twinine from the from the observer's left 



observer's right to his to his right, or against 



left, or with the sun. the sun. 



tion of the movement of the sun, or from the observer's 

 right to his left. Fig. 2673. Others, as the morning 

 glory, twine in a direction opposed to the daily move- 

 ment of the sun, or from the observer's left to his right. 

 Fig. 2674. The constancy of these directions of climb- 

 ing was observed long ago. It is interesting to know 

 that Paul Dudley, Chief Justice of Massachusetts, 

 made this observation as long ago as 1724 and reported 

 it to the Royal Philosophical Society. A full discussion 

 of this and related topics concerning climbing plants 

 may be found in Darwin's book, "The Movements and 

 Habits of Climbing Plants." 



The special organs by means of which plants climb are 

 of many kinds. In general they may be referred to three 

 general categories: roots, as the trumpet creeper and 

 ivies; coiling petioles or leaf-stalks, as t'.ie clematis 

 (Fig. 487) and the nasturtium; tendrils. The tendrils 

 are of various morphological origin. Some of them, as 



