8o THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



extreme, and pleases us no better, in calling it " the wood- 

 bine, pale and wan " : the perfume, " never cloying," 

 perhaps held as compensating for " her sickly looks " — a 

 poor anaemic thing indeed. 



The honeysuckle, from its beauty, from the ease with 

 which it may be transplanted from the copse, from its 

 value in covering over arbour or fencing, is often introduced 

 into the garden. It will grow in almost any soil, and can 

 readily be propagated by layers or cuttings, September being 

 the best month for this purpose. It is one of the earliest 

 plants to expand its buds. 



Like almost everything else, the honeysuckle has had 

 a goodly number of remedial virtues ascribed to it. In 

 comparatively recent times a decoction of the stems was 

 used for gout, while an infusion of the flower was held 

 of healing power for the victims of asthma. One old writer 

 declares that they cure the hicket — whatever that may 

 be ; while another asserts that " the ripe seed gathered and 

 dried in the shadow and drunk remoueth wearisomenesse," 

 while " the flowers steeped in oile and set in the sun is 

 good to annoint the bodie that is benummed and growne 

 verie cold." 



BLACKBERRY (Rubus Fruticosus) 



In our twelfth illustration we have figured a spray of 

 the Blackberry, certainly one of the best known of our 

 hedge-plants, " going blackberrying " being a delightful 

 experience of our younger days that few, surely, have been 

 so unhappy as to have had no share in. While many 

 plants, as we have already seen to be the case with the 



