232 



CAPRIFOLlACE^ 



with large snow-white corollas, rendering the bush conspicuous ; 

 berries slightly flattened, translucent, blood-red. — Moist woods 

 and hedges ; common. The berries are said to be sometimes 

 fermented and eaten, a statement scarcely credible to any one who 

 has chanced to smell them. In the garden variety, known as the 

 Snowball-tree, all the flowers are neuter and the cyme has become 

 globular. — Fl. June, July. Perennial. 



2. V. Lan tana 

 (Mealy Guelder Rose, 

 Wayfaring-tree). — A 

 shrub, pubescent with 

 stellate hairs ; leaves 

 elliptical, cordate, 

 serrate, very downy 

 beneath, exstipulate ; 

 cymes termina ; 

 flowers small, white, 

 all perfect : berries 

 much flattened, scar- 

 let, turning black 

 when fully ripe. — Dry 

 hedgerows, chiefly on 

 calcareous soil ; not 

 general.- — Fl. May, 

 June. Perennial. 



4. LlNN^A. — A 



very slender creeping 

 plant ; leaves ever- 

 green, exstipulate ; 

 flowers in pairs on 

 ascending, 2-bracte- 

 ate peduncles, with 

 drooping 2-bracteol- 

 ate pedicels; corolla 

 bell-shaped ; petals 5, 

 slightly unequal ; stamens 4, 2 longer than the others ; fruit 

 seldom formed in Britain. (Name in honour of Carl von Linne, 

 the great Swedish botanist.) 



I. L. boredlis. — The only species, almost glabrous ; leaves oya.te, 

 obtuse, thick; flowers fragrant and of a delicate pink colour, 

 crimson within. — Fir-woods in Scotland and at Hartburn, North- 

 umberland. Deservedly regarded with peculiar interest as being 

 the ''little northern plant, long overlooked, depressed, abject, 



VIBt^RNUM LANtXnA 



{Wayfaring-tree, Mealy Guelder Rose). 



