BIGNO'NIA, a genus of plants named by Tournefort after the Abbd Bignon, librarian to Louis XIV. It forms the type of the monopetalous order of Exogens, Bignoniaceu. It has a campanulate 5-toothed rarely entire calyx ; the corolla with a short tube, a campanulate throat, and a 5-lobed bilabiate limb ; the stamens four, didynamous, with the rudiments of a fifth ; lobes of the anther divaricate ; stigma bilamel hated ' • capsule siliqui-formed, 2-celled, with the disscpiment parallel with the valves ; the seeds in two rows, imbricate, transverse, with membranous wings. Nearly 100 species of this genus of elegant plants have been described. They are usually climbing shrubs furnished with tendrils, having opposite, single, conjugate, ternate, pinnate, or digitate leaves. The flowers are mostly in terminal or axillary pani cles. The corollas are trumpet-shaped, and are coloured variously, white, yellow, orange, purple, violet, or rose.
All the species of this genus are splendid plants while in blossom, and deserve a place in every collection. Most of them are climbers, and adapted for training up rafters and pillars, but they only grow freely in stoves. A mixture of loam and peat is best adapted for their growth, and cuttings will strike readily under a hand-glass in heat, either in mould or sand. The species known by the name of this genus which is most abundant in our gardens is the Bignonia radicans. This and some other species of Bignonia are now referred to the genera Spathodea [SPATITODEA] and Tecoma [TEc0MA]. It is one of the few species capable of living in the open air against a wall in this country.
B. mquinoxialis has square glabrous branches, glabrous conjugate leaves, oblong lanceolate leaflets, simple axillary tendrils, 2-flowered peduncles, terminal ones racemose, follicles linear. It is a native of Guyana. It is applied by the negroea to swellings of the feet, with which they are troubled.
B. leuxoxylon is a tree, and has quinate leaves ; ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous leaflets; terminal, solitary, or twin flowers. This plant is a native of Jamaica, on the banks of rivers. It has white
flowers, not unlike those of Datura Stromeniuns, which come out before the leaves. The wood is of a green or yellow colour, and is sometimes brought into the market under the name of ebony. It is said to be an antidote to the poison of IManchineel.
B. Clam is a climbing plant, and has abruptly-bipinnate leaves; conjugate elliptic-ovate, acuminate, deeply-cordate, glabrous leaflets; axillary pendulous panicles. It grows on the banks of the Orinoco. A red matter is extracted from its wood by the Indians, with which they paint their bodies. It is called Chico, and has been used in this conntry as a dye.
B. alliacea has tetragonal branches, conjugate leaves, coriacoous ellip tic leaflets, simple tendrils, axillary 5-flowered peduncles, a 5-toothed calyx. It is a native of Guyana and the West Indies. It has largo white flowers, and is distinguished from all the other species by its peculiar garlic odour; hence the French name Liane h ]'Ail.
(Don, Gardener's Dictionary; Do Condone, Prodromus ; Burnett's Outline; Cycloinrdia of Plants.) BIGNONIA'CErE, Bignoniada, the Bignonia Tribe, are 3lonopeta lous Dicotyledonous plants, with irregular flowers, a pod-like fruit, winged seeds without albumen, and usually a climbing habit. They are mostly shrubs, inhabiting the hotter parts of Asia, Africa, and America, and unknown in Europe except in a cultivated state ; some of them are trees of considerable size. They generally are remarkable for the large size and rich or delicate colouring of their trumpet-shaped flowers. No sensible properties of much importance have been recog nised among them. Several are valuable for their timber, which pos sesses extreme hardness. According to Lindley the number of genera in this order is 44, and the species 450. They are allied to Gesneracur and Crucenliacem [l3toxoNIA ; EccramOceurus; CATALPA; TECOMA; JACARANDA.] I, A corolla slit open ; 2, a cup-shaped disk, out of which the ovary often grows, together with the style and stigma ; 3, a young ovary; 4, a ripe pod; 5, a seed ; 6, an embryo extracted from the Integuments of the seed.