CAPE JASMINE 375 



to 2 feet high, with smooth, egg-shaped leaves. Flowers pale red, with 

 darker stripes, in loose cymes ; July. The scales in the throat secrete 

 honey, and this attracting insects, these irritate the scales, wdiicli bend 

 towards the centre of the flower and imprison the insects till they die. 

 Similar effects may be witnessed in other genera of ApocynacEyE. In- 

 troduced from Virginia, 1683. 

 Cuiti ti Apocynums will succeed in ordinary garden soils, and 



require no care beyond that generally accorded to hardy 

 perennials. Propagation may be effected either by sowing seeds in 

 autumn, or separating the suckers from the roots in spring. 



CAPE JASMINE 



Natural Order ApocYNACEiE. Genus Trachelospermum 



I (Greek, trachelos, neck, and spermum, seed ; the seeds 

 being drawn out into a kind of neck). A genus of four stove, or green- 

 house, climbing shrubs, with distant opposite leaves and white flowers 

 in loose cymes. The calyx is five-parted, ^vith a series of scaly glands 

 within. The corolla is salver-sliaped, witli a constricted throat and five 

 twisted oblong lobes. Stamens arrow-licad-like, as in Apocyn iim, but 

 attached half-way down tube. The cylindrical seed- pods are from 4 to 

 9 inches long, and contain numerous beaked seeds. They are natives of 

 India, China, Japan, and Malaya. Also known as Rhynchospermum 

 and Parechites. 



Trachelospermum jasminoides (Jasmine-like) is well- 

 ■ known as a greenhouse climber. Leaves oval-lance-shapcd, 

 shortly stalked, rigid. Flowers Jasmine-like, but with shorter tube; 

 white, sweet scented, produced profusely at the ends of the branches ; 

 July. Introduced from Shanghai, 1840. 



A compost of loam and peat will be found the most 

 litable soil for the Cape Jasmine. In the greenhouse it 

 grows and flowers freely without special attention, and in the South it 

 it may even be grow^n out of doors against a south wall, where it can 

 have extra protection in severe weather, but the warmth of the green- 

 house is necessary to ensure free flowering. It is propagated by mer.ns 

 of cuttings. There is a form of T. jasminoides — the var. angiistifolium 

 — distinguished by its smaller and narrower leaves, which is quite 

 hardy out of doors in the South of England, if trained against a 

 wall. 



