Their color varies from a pale purple to a cream color and they average about three quarters of an inch in length. It is found in moist woods throughout the United States and southern Canada.
(B) Beech Drops; Cancer-root (Epifagus virginiana). This peculiar growth is found almost exclusively in beech woods.
The stem attains heights of 6 to 20 inches. At the ends of the branches are a number of curved, tubular flowers; these are stained a dull magenta.
Beech Drops attaches its roots to those of beech trees and gets all its sustenance from them. It blooms form August to Oct. and ranges from N. B. to Minn. and southward.
BIGNONIA FAMILY
(Bignoniaceæ)
Trumpet Creeper (Tecoma radicans) is an exceedingly beautiful woody vine having a southern disposition.
The stem grows from 20 to 40 feet long and is either prostrate or climbing. Sometimes it extends over the ground, climbing over the bushes that may be in its path, and again it may take an upward course and climb the trunks and branches of small trees. As it is a hardy plant it is often seen in cultivation and is used to decorate porches in the North.
The flowers are trumpet-shaped, red within and tawny or orange on the outside of the tube. They grow in terminal clusters of two to nine blossoms, each in a cup-shaped, two-parted calyx. The corolla is about 2½ inches long and flares into five rounded lobes. Four anther-bearing stamens and a pistil are in the upper part of the tube. The leaves grow oppositely on the stem and are each composed of 7 to 11 ovate, toothed leaflets. We find this vine from N. J. to Ia. and southward.
