248 Pink to Red Flowers 



SMOOTH-LEAVED HONEYSUCKLE 



Lonicera glaucescens. Honeysuckle Family 



Twining, the branches glabrous. Leaves: chartaceous-margined, not 

 ciliate, only the upper pair connate-perfoliate. Flowers: verticillate in 

 a short, terminal, interrupted spike ; corolla yellow changing to red, the 

 tube strongly gibbous at the base, the two-lipped limb shorter than the 

 tube ; stamens and style exserted. 



A climbing vine, with pairs of smooth leaves covered 

 with a delicate bloom, growing along its branches, only the 

 upper ones joined together round the stem, which bears at 

 its apex a cluster of red and gold flowers. These blossoms 

 are trumpet-shaped, and the five stamens and style project 

 beyond the corolla, which is vermilion outside and yellow 

 within. The berry is soft and juicy. Sometimes this vine 

 is called Woodbine, and Shakespeare in his exquisite ro- 

 mance of A Midsummer Night's Dream refers to this fact 

 when he makes Queen Titania say to Bottom the Weaver, 

 with whom the Fairy King Oberon has caused her by means 

 of a love philter to fall in love : 



" Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. 

 So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 

 Gently entwist." 



Milton in Lycidas speaks of " the well-attir'd woodbine," 

 and truly, for no " gadding vine " was ever graced with 

 finer or more fragrant flowers. 



Spenser calls it by the older name of Caprifole, or Goat- 

 leaf, because, like the mountain goat, it climbs over almost 

 inaccessible crags ; the French and Italian names are also 

 similar, being respectively Chevre-fenille and Caprifoglio, 



