278 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



trees or shrubs, and outside a wood is rarely found, 

 except it be in a hedgerow or in scrub. 



It grows in damp oakwoods on clay and loam, on 

 sandy soil in oakwoods where both the pedunculate 

 and sessile oaks grow, on siliceous soils in dry oak- 

 woods where the latter predominate, in ashwoods 

 on limestone, and on chalk scrub. 



The habit is twining. The plant is smooth or 

 slightly downy. The stem is woody, and scrambles 

 over bushes and trees, sometimes to a height of 20 ft. 

 The leaves are often downy below, lobed when 

 young, and are all distinct, blunt, oval, oblong, 

 smooth above, downy below, the lower narrower at 

 the base or stalked, the upper rounded, closely 

 sessile, deciduous. The flowers are red externally, 

 creamy white, several, in stalked cymes or glomerules, 

 sessile above the last leaves. The tube of the 

 corolla is long, gaping, i J in. long, glandular, downy. 

 The calyx teeth are persistent. 



The fruit is small, red when ripe, round. The 

 pericarp, placenta, bracts, and axis are fleshy. The 

 anthers are versatile. 



The flowers bloom from June to September. The 

 plant is a climbing shrub 10 to 20 ft. high. 



Honey is secreted at the base of the tube, and 

 half fills the tube, so that then short-lipped humble 

 bees may get at it. The flowers open about 7 or 

 8 p.m. and are very fragrant, being vertical in bud. 

 Owing to the long tube, however, it is especially 

 adapted to Lepidoptera or long-tongued moths. 



