Trumpet-flower, or Scarlet Jasmine, a genus of the angioferma order, belonging to the didynamia class of plants.

Species. Of this genus Linnaeus enumerates 17 species; of which the following are the most remarkable.

1. The radicans, or climbing ash-leaved bignonia, is a native of Virginia and Canada. It rises 30 or 40 feet high, having pinnated opposite leaves of four pair of serrated lobes, and an odd one; all the shoots and branches being terminated by beautiful clusters of large trumpet-shaped scarlet flowers. The humming birds delight to feed on these flowers, and by thrusting themselves too far into them are sometimes caught. Of this species there is a variety with smaller flowers.

2. The sempervirens, or evergreen climbing Virginia bignonia, is a native of Virginia, Carolina, and the Bahama islands. The stalks are more slender than those of the former species; yet they rise, upon proper supports, to the height of 20 or 30 feet; the flowers are trumpet-shaped, erect, and of a yellow colour, proceeding from the sides and ends of the stalks and branches.

3. The catalpa, is a native of the same countries. It hath a strong woody stem and branches, rising 20 feet high, ornamented with large heart-shaped leaves, five or six inches long, and almost as broad, placed by threes, with whitish yellow-striped flowers coming out in panicles towards the end of the branches. This deserves a place in all curious shrubberies, as during the summer season no tree makes a more beautiful appearance; for which reason it should be placed conspicuously; or some might be planted singly upon spacious lawns, or other large opens of grass ground, and permitted to take their natural growth.

Culture. The two first species may be propagated by layers; every shoot laid down will readily grow, and will flower in two or three years. Cuttings of the strong shoots will also put out roots freely. They may be also propagated by seeds procured from America. These should be sown in the spring, in pots placed in a moderate hot-bed, from which the plants must be removed to the open air in summer; they are to be sheltered from the frost in winter, and next spring may be planted in the ground where they are to remain; but plants thus raised seldom flower in less than six or seven years. The catalpa may be propagated from the cuttings of its young shoots planted in the spring in pots plunged into a hot-bed. They will take root in a month or six weeks, when they must be hardened to the open air, in which they may stand till the month of October, and then be moved to a place of occasional shelter from frosts, and in the following spring planted out in the nursery. They may be raised from seeds planted either in a warm border, or in pots plunged in a moderate hotbed, which will facilitate the germination of the seed that is otherwise apt to remain a year in the ground before it begins to grow.