THE HONEYSUCKLE. 



Lonicera Periclymenum. Nat. Ord., 

 Caprifoliacece . 



E have in Britain three species of 

 honeysuckles the perfoliate honey- 

 suckle, the fly honeysuckle, and 

 the present species, which is much 

 the commonest of the three. It 

 may very frequently be met with 

 in all parts of the country, in the 

 woods and trailing over the hedge- 

 rows. It flowers from June until 

 the end of September. Its beauty, 

 as it hangs in graceful festoons 

 from the tree-trunks, or drapes the 

 shrubs in the coppice or hedge, has 

 made it at all times a favourite. 

 Milton and Shakespeare, to say 

 nothing of many of the lesser 

 lights of poesy, have sung its praises 

 in appreciative strains. Both with the 

 poets and the old herbalists the plant is 

 often called the woodbine; either name seemed to be equally 

 common. Shakespeare, in the Midsummer NigMs Dream, 

 calls it "the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle," and in 

 another passage it is the "caprifole," a name that is 

 also given to it by Spenser. This latter name is used 



