Where a trumpet vine climbs with the help of its aérial roots,
like an ivy’s, and sends forth clusters of brilliant tubes at the tips
of long, wiry branches, there one is sure to see, sooner or later,
the ruby-throat flashing, whirring, darting from flower to flower.
Eight birds at once were counted about a vine one sunny morn-
ing. The next, a pair of tame pigeons walked over the roof of
the summer-house where the creeper grew luxuriantly, and punc-
tured, with a pop that was distinctly heard fifty feet away, the base
of every newly opened nectar-filled trumpet on it! That after-
noon all the corollas discolored, and no hummers came near.
Coral or Trumpet Honeysuckle
(Lonicera sempervirens) Honeysuckle family


Flowers—Red outside, orange yellow within ; whorled round ter-
minal spikes. Calyx insignificant ; corolla tubular, slender,
1% in. long or less, slightly spread below the 5-lobed limb ;
Aleit ; 1 pistil. Stem; A high, twining vine. Leaves:

vergreen in the South only ; opposite, rounded oval, dark,

shining green above, the upper leaves united around the stem
by their bases to form a cup. Fruit: An interrupted spike
of deep orange-red berries.
Preferred Habitat—Rich, light, warm soil ; hillsides, thickets.
Flowering Season—April—September.
Distribution—Connecticut, westward to Nebraska, and south to
the Gulf States. Occasionally escaped from cultivation
farther north.
