THE 



Caijadiaq horticulturist. 



Vol. XI. 



1B55. 



X... 10. 



THE TRUMPET CREEPER. 



^OR tlie more f.avored portions 

 of Ontario the Trumpet Creeper 

 0tW is one of tlie most desirable of 

 climbing vines. We have tested it at 

 Grimsby for twenty-five years, and 

 although while young the fresh growth 

 was killed back so that it appeared to 

 make very little progres.s, yet every 

 year the main stem gathered strength 

 until at length it became a thing of 

 beauty upon the lawn. In one retired 

 nook, several of these vines have sprung 

 up without care, and twined themselves 

 about the trunk of a Norway spruce 

 tree to the very top, some twenty-five or 

 thirty feet, and a more interesting and 

 attractive plan could not have been 

 devised. The little graceful shoots 

 clothed with pinnate leaves, so beauti- 

 fully contrast with the stiff background 

 of spruce foliage ; and the great showy 

 trumpet-shaped flowers, borne in ter- 



minal corymbs on the young shoots in 

 August, delight one the more because 

 quite unexpected in such a situation. 

 Another beautiful specimen almost 

 conceals one end of a neighboring 

 stone house ; and, climbing by its tiny 

 rootlets, has even surmounted the roof, 

 and almost hidden the great stone 

 chimney which it decks with its scarlet 

 trumpets. 



The variety referred to is known as 

 Tecoma radcans, according to Gray, 

 although nurserymen have propagated 

 and .sold it under the name of Bignonia, 

 a name now confined by Ijotanists to 

 another species of woody climber, 

 belonging to the Bignonia family. It 

 may also be interesting to notice that 

 the Catiiipa, so much prized of late as 

 an ornamental tree, is another species 

 of this same family. For the most 

 part the Bignonias are tropical plants, 



