692 



C A P R I F O L 1 U M. 



The order has been subdivided into two sections : 

 Satnbitcece, or the elder tribe, and Lonicerce, or the 

 true honeysuckle tribe. In the former the corolla is 

 rotate, the ovary three or four-celled, styles three or 

 four, and flowers in cymes ; it includes the genera 

 Sambucus and Viburnum. In the latter the corolla 

 is tubular, there is one style, and the berry is from 

 two to four-celled, each cell containing one or many 

 seeds. It comprehends the genera Caprifolium, Loni- 

 cera, Triosteum, Diervilla, Abelia, Symphoricarpos, 

 Linncea, c. 



The genera Caprifolium and Lonicera include many 

 beautiful odoriferous flowering shrubs, which are 

 highly prized in the garden or nursery. Lonicera 

 periciymennm, or Caprifolium Italicum, the common 

 honeysuckle or woodbine, has often been celebrated 

 in poetry. 



" Watch upon a bank 

 With ivy canopied, and interwove 

 With flaunting'honeysuckle." 



' It frequently supports itself by twining round 

 other plants, and in doing so the stem invariably 

 turns in one direction, from left to right; 



" So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle 

 Gently entwine the maple." 



Milton speaks of it under the name of the "twisted 

 egtantine." At other times it 



"loves to crawl, 

 Up the low crag and ruined wall," 



and spreads over them an elegant and pleasing 

 covering. 



There are two other species of honeysuckle found 

 native in Britain, the pale perfoliate honeysuckle 

 and the upright fly honeysuckle, but they are not so 

 commonly met with as the species just mentioned. 

 The bark of Lonicera corymbosa possesses astringent 

 properties, and it is used in Chili to give a black 

 colour to cloth. 



Sambiicus nigra, or common elder, is found abun- 

 dantly in Britain. It blossoms in June, and ripens 

 its berries in September. Sir James Smith says, that 

 our uncertain summer is established by the time the 

 elder is in full flower, and entirely gone when its 

 berries are ripe. Its flowers are well known as a 

 domestic medicine. They have an agreeable aro- 

 matic flavour, and possess laxative and sudorific 

 qualities. They are chiefly, however, used in the 

 form of ointment and fomentations. The smell from 

 the plant is considered narcotic; it was formerly 

 reckoned not safe to sleep under its shade. Cabbages 

 turnips, fruit-trees, or corn, whipped with the green 

 leaves or branches of the elder are said not to be 

 liable to the attacks of insects. The berries of the 

 elder are poisonous to poultry, and the flowers to 

 turkeys. The leaves, more especially the young leaf 

 buds, are nauseous, and act as violent purgatives 

 An infusion of the inner green bark in wine, and the 

 expressed juice of the berries, act in a similar man 

 ner, although in a less marked degree. The berne< 

 contain malic acid, and have rather a pleasant taste 

 A wine is made from them, which is drunk warm 

 with spices and sugar. They are used in the form 

 of preserves, and are said sometimes to enter into the 

 composition of adulterated port. The wood of th 

 elder is hard and yellow, and is used by butchers 

 fishers, and turners. The pith, from its lightness, i 

 used in a variety of electrical experiments. Shee] 

 eat the plant, while horses, cows and goats, refuse it 



Sambucits ebuhis, dwarf-elder or Dane-wort, ano- 

 her British species, possesses similar properties with 

 he common elder. It has a fuetid smell, and is 

 trongly purgative. Cattle refuse to eat the plant, 

 and its leaves are said to drive away mice from 

 -ranaries. The berries yield a violet colour. 



The various species of Viburnum, two of which are 

 natives of Britain, yield astringent fruit, which, after 

 ermentation, is in some counties made into a sort of 

 cake. The berries of the Viburnum cdule or oxycoccos, 

 are gratefully acid, and are used as food. The young 

 shoots of Viburnum lanata, mealy guelder rose or 

 wayfaring tree, are used in the Crimea for the tubes 

 of tobacco-pipes. The leaves turn of a dark red in 

 autumn, and the bark serves to make birdlime. 



Viburnum opulus, common guelder rose, or water- 

 elder, is cultivated in gardens under the name of the 

 snow-ball tree. Its leaves, which are bright green in 

 summer, acquire in autumn a pink or crimson tint. 



Viburnum tinus, or Laurestine, is one of the most 

 ornamental evergreen shrubs. Its showy white 

 flowers appear during winter. 



The genus Triosteum is intermediate between the 

 CaprifoliacccB and Rubiacece. Triosteum pcrfoliatum 

 is a gentle cathartic when given in small doses. In 

 large doses it acts as an emelic. Its berries, when 

 dried and roasted, are used as a substitute for coffee. 



The young branches of the Diervilla are used in 

 South America as a remedy in some urinary affec- 

 tions. The roots both of the Triosteum and Diervilla 

 are employed in America instead of Ipecacuan. 



To this order belongs the humble and delicate, 

 but highly interesting genus Linncea, which has re- 

 ceived its name in honour of the immortal Linnaeus, 

 to whom natural history and botany in particular are 

 so deeply indebted. There is only one species, 

 LinncEa borealis. It is a very elegant unassuming 

 plant, found in native fir woods and in mountainous 

 situations, in several parts of Europe and America, 

 and eagerly sought by botanists, both on account of 

 its beauty and its rarity. In Scotland it is found in 

 several places, particularly in the counties of Perth, 

 Angus, Inverness, and Aberdeen, while there is only 

 one station as yet known for it in England. The 

 plant has a bitter and astringent taste. It is used in 

 some countries as a fomentation in cases of rheuma- 

 tism, and an infusion in milk is esteemed in Switzer- 

 land in sciatica. The flowers are rose-coloured, 

 graceful, fragrant, and drooping. Such, says Sir James 

 Smith, is the little northern plant, the long over- 

 looked object, flowering early, which Linnaeus selected 

 to transmit his own name to posterity. Few could 

 have been better chosen ; and the progress of prac- 

 tical botany in Britain seems to be marked by the 

 more frequent discovery of the two-flowered Lmna-a. 



CAPRIFOLIUM (Rorner and Schultes). Is 

 the honey-suckle or woodbine, a sweet and well 

 known plant all over Europe. Linriaean class and 

 order Pentandria Monogynia; natural order Capri" 

 foliacece. Generic character : calyx of five teeth ; 

 corolla tubular ; swollen at the base, limb irre- 

 gularly divided, two lipped, one in two, the other 

 in three divisions ; stamens protruding ; berry one 

 or ' two celled, sometimes three-seeded. A 4rardy 

 plant like this, which is at every body's door 

 needs no further description ; but as there are above 

 thirty species in the two genera of CaprifoKum and 

 Lonicera, and several varieties of each, it should be 

 known that they are not all hardy ; some of both 



