Question

Why do the jasmine is called twiner

Answer 1

Notwithstanding its beauty as a climber, and the sweetness of its golden flowers, the Carolina Jasmine possesses qualities dangerous to the ignorant, though of great value to the intelligent medical practitioner. Dr. Peyre Porcher tells us that during the war between the North and the South, when medicines in popular use were cut off by the blockade, this plant was commonly employed as a narcotic. The expressed juice was found to produce insensibility to pain, and yet without stupor. Overdoses, however, produced unconsciousness and death. Dr. Porcher says that the plant is gradually advancing northwards, and speaks of it as having " reached Norfolk," as if on a travelling excursion. Where its starting-place was does not appear. It is very common in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, and thence up along all the seaboard States to Virginia, and De Candolle says it is found in Mexico. If, however, Mexico was its original home, it hardly reached us by what is now the "overland route," for it does not appear to be found in Texas, nor have we any record of it from any place west of the Mississippi River.