TRUMPET-FLOWER, or SCARLET JASMINE: A genus of the angiospermia order, belonging to the didynamia class of plants; and in the natural method ranking in the 40th order Perianthae. The calyx is quinqueflid and cup-form; the corolla is bell-shaped at the throat, quinqueflid, and bellied underneath; the filium is bilocular; and the seeds have membranous wings.

Species. Of this genus Linnæus 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 temperans, 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.

4. The unguis, or claw-bignonia, a deciduous climber, is a native of Barbadoes and the others. other West India islands. It rises by the help of claw-like tendrils, the branches being very slender and weak; and by these it will over-top bushes, trees, &c. twenty or thirty feet high. The branches, however, show their natural tendency to aspire, for they wind about every thing that is near them; so that, together with the affluence nature has given them of tendrils, it is no wonder they arrive at so great an height. These branches, or rather stalks, have a smooth surface, are often of a reddish colour, particularly next the sun, and are very tough. The tendrils grow from the joints; they are bowed, and are divided into three parts. The leaves grow in pairs at the joints, and are four in number at each. These are of an oblong figure, have their edges entire, and are very ornamental to the plant; for they are of an elegant green colour: their under surface is much paler than their upper; and their footstalks, midrib, and veins, alter to a fine purple. The flowers are monopetalous and bell-shaped. The tube is very large, and the rim is divided and spreads open. They grow from the wings of the leaves in August, two usually at each joint; and they are succeeded in the countries where they grow naturally by long pods. 5. The capreolata, or tendril bignonia, a native of North America, is another fine climber, which rises by the affluence of tendrils or claspers. The leaves grow at the joints opposite by pairs, though those which appear at the bottom frequently come out singly. They are of an oblong figure, and continue on the plant all winter. The flowers are produced in August from the wings of the leaves; they are of the same nature, and of the shape nearly of the former; are large, of a yellow colour, and succeeded by short pods.

Culture and Propagation. Of the climbers: 1. If the shoots are laid upon the ground, and covered with a little mould, they will immediately strike root, and become good plants for setting out where they are wanted. 2. They will all grow by cuttings. The bottom part of the strongest young shoots is the best; and by this method plenty may be soon raised. 3. They are to be raised by seeds; but this is a tedious method, especially of the pinnated-leaved sorts; for it will be many years before the plants raised from seeds will blow. As to the catalpa, whoever has the convenience of a bark-bed may propagate it in plenty, 1. By cuttings; which being planted in pots, and plunged into the beds in the spring, will soon strike root, and may afterwards be so hardened to the open air, that they may be set abroad in the shade before the end of summer; in the beginning of October, they should be removed into a greenhouse, or under some shelter to be protected from the winter's frosts. In the spring, after the bad weather is past, they may be turned out of the pots, and planted in the nursery-way, in a well sheltered place; and if the soil be rich, and rather inclined to be moist, it will be the better. Here they may stand for four or five years, the rows being dug in winter and weeded in summer, when they will be of a proper size to be planted out to stand. These cuttings will often grow in a rich, shady, moist, border; so that whoever can have plenty of them, should plant them pretty thick in such a place, and he may be tolerably sure, by this way, of raising many plants. 2. From seed; which must be procured from America, and should be sown in a fine warm border of light rich mould, or else in pots or boxes; the seedling plants requiring more than a common care.