Erect trees with large simple leaves and terminal panicles of flowers. Calyx bilabiate. Corolla campanulate. Fertile stamens 2 or 4. Capsule long and slender, with the partition contrary to the valves. A small genus occurring in the West Indies, North America, Japan, and China. The name is the Indian appellation for the North American species.

1. C. bignonioides (fig. 194), syn. G. syringaefolia. Indian Bean. - A handsome small tree with large leaves downy beneath, either opposite or in whorls of threes. Flowers white tinged with violet and speckled with purple and yellow in the throat. The seed-vessel, which is rarely seen in this country, is nearly a foot long. A native of the Southern States of North America. There is a variety with golden foliage.

Fig. 194. Catalpa bignonioides. (1/4 nat. size.)

G. Bingei is a native of China, of rather smaller stature, with more acuminate glabrous leaves.