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purest white, in May and June, and its large clusters of fruit, of bright 

 translucent scarlet, in September and October, whilst the vivid purple 

 of the fading leaves combines with the varied tints of the wayfaring 

 tree, the maple and dogwood, to the gorgeous hues of the autumnal 

 landscape. This shrub often rises with us in the wild state to 10 or 

 12 feet, and with cymes 4 inches in diameter; a variety with very 

 small leaves is likewise frequent. The fruit, which is intensely acid 

 and bitter, finally becomes disgusting from its odour, and hence the 

 plant is sometimes called stink-tree in this island. The tall cranberry 

 of the Americans (V. Oxycoccus and V. edule) is now considered 

 identical with the European V. Opulus, of which it seems to me to 

 be scarcely even a variety, my specimens gathered in Canada differ- 

 ing in no respects from Hampshire ones, and the berries I found to 

 be equally bitter, sharp and unpalatable, yet are they eaten, as Dr. 

 Asa Gray observes, as a (poor) substitute for cranberries in the north- 

 ern parts of the United States. Gmelin (Fl. Sibirica, iii., p. 146) re- 

 lates a strange and rather long story from Steller, of the property these 

 berries are said to possess of depriving corn brandy of both taste and 

 smell, and reducing it apparently to so much water, yet retaining its 

 power of intoxicating rather increased than diminished by the addi- 

 tion. When planted in a dry garden, the interior flowers of the cyme 

 quickly evince a tendency to become radiant and abortive like the 

 outer, or to assume the conditions they present in the well-known 

 snowball tree of our shrubberies. 



\1Lonicera Caprifolium. Woods and thickets; very rare. In 

 two places in the middle of a wood at Appleshaw, apparently quite 

 wild ; Rev. G. F. Dawson in litt. I have twice carefully searched for 

 this rare honeysuckle in Mr. Dawson's station, which is a steep wood 

 at the north end of the village, and in part nearly facing the church, 

 but failed in finding the spot, as did also Mr. Whale, of Andover. 

 The wood, which is large and thick, has been partially cleared of 

 brush, so that it is very possible the Lonicera may have been removed 

 with the underwood, or have escaped observation in the part left 

 standing, and which is not everywhere easily explored from its den- 

 sity. In the former case the plant will no doubt spring again from 

 the root and attach itself to the new undergrowth, in the latter a per- 

 severing search will bring it again to light. I have seen specimens 

 from the station in the herbarium of Miss O. Haddfield, of Ventnor 

 Isle of Wight, communicated by the discoverer. The locality is a 

 good one, but geographical considerations are opposed to the idea of 

 the species being truly indigenous to this country, though decidedly 



