Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/537

 WAXWING The plants have twining stems which throw out aerial rootlets, generally thick and fleshy opposite leaves, and flowers in dense umbels ; the corolla is wheel-shaped, five-lobed, the up- per surface covered with minute papillse ; in the centre is a crown composed of five thick appendages to the stamens and presenting the form of a star ; the pollen is in masses as in the milkweeds. The most common wax plant is H. carnosa, the first species introduced ; its flowers are flesh-colored, sometimes nearly white, and have a wax-like appearance, which with their very regular shape makes them closely resemble artificial flowers. About a dozen species are cultivated, among which are those with crimson, brownish, and yellow flow- ers. They take root readily, are of easy culti- vation where there is sufficient sun and heat, and are used to train to the rafters or around the pillars of stoves or hothouses. The com- mon species is one of the few stove plants that do well in window culture, its fleshy leaves resisting the drying effects of a furnace-heated atmosphere. The plants do not require much water, except when growing ; the short flow- WAXWORK 517 "Wax Plant (Hoya carnosa). ering stems should not be cut away when the flowers fall, as they produce new clusters for several years in succession. WAXWING, a name applied to birds of the genus ampelis (Linn.) or bombycilla (Vieill.), derived from the appendages at the ends of some of the secondaries and tertiaries, which in color and texture resemble small pieces of red sealing wax ; these are horny expansions of the shafts, and are found in both sexes. This group, which embraces two North Amer- ican species, has by some been placed among the chatterers; Cabanis makes them a sub- family of the flycatchers, and Baird elevates them into a family (ampelidce), coming near the shrikes in the notch of the lower mandible. The gape is very wide, but without bristles; bill short, broad at the base, compressed, and notched at the tip in both mandibles ; wings long, broad, and pointed, with ten primaries, the first rudimentary and the second the long- est ; tail short and even ; tarsi short, toes long, Bohemian Waxwing (Arapolis garrulus). and claws curved and sharp. Unlike the chat- terers, they are silent birds, and are found only in cold regions. The Bohemian waxwing or chatterer (A. garrulus, Linn.) is a handsome bird, about 8 in. long and 12 in. in alar extent ; the color is a general reddish gray, with a large patch on the throat and band on forehead black ; crest and lower tail coverts brownish orange ; primaries, secondaries, and tail tipped with yellow ; two white bands on the wings ; lower parts silvery gray. It is found in the extreme northern portions of America, Europe, and Asia, migrating to temperate latitudes in winter, being most common in the United States about the great lakes and the valley of the northern Mississippi. The epithet Bohe- mian is a misnomer, as they are no more abun- dant in Bohemia than in the more northern parts of Europe ; they live principally and breed within the arctic circle. The food consists of berries of all kinds, especially of the mountain ash, hawthorn, ivy,' and juniper ; and they oc- casionally take insects, after the manner of the flycatchers. (See also CEDAR BIRD.) WAXWORK, one of the common names for a climbing shrub, celastrvs scandens, which is also in different localities called staff tree, climbing or shrubby bittersweet, and Roxbury waxwork. The genus celastrus comprises about 18 species, one of which belongs to the United States, the majority of the others be- ing Asiatic; it gives its name to a family, the celastracete, of about 30 genera, several of which are North American, but only one other, euonymus or spindle tree, is at all common. The waxwork grows in moist soils from Cana- da to the Carolinas, and west beyond the Mis- sissippi, climbing over rocks and upon trees to the height of 20 ft. or more ; it is smooth throughout; its alternate, rather thin, ovate- oblong, pointed, finely serrate leaves are 2 to 5 in. long, dark green above and lighter below ; the flowers are dioecious or polygamous, green-