HONEYSUCKLE 



This beautiful genus of 



HONEYSUCKLE. 



flowering shrubs occupies a very prominent situation 

 in the shrubbery and flower garden. It belongs to 

 the class and order Pentandria Monogynia, and is 

 better known in the language of poetry as the ivood- 

 bine. It was common in the flower gardens of the 

 ancient Greeks, and we find it a never failing theme 

 with our earliest poets when they wished to furnish a 

 striking emblem of devoted attachment. Thus Chau- 

 cer, the father of English poetry, says, 



" And tho that were chapelets on her hede, 

 Of fresh wodebind, be such as never were 

 To love untrue, in word, in thought, ne dede; 

 But ay stedfast ; ne for plesance ne fere, 

 Tho that they shulde hir hertes all to tere, 

 Woud never flit, but ever were stedfast." 



It is probable that the common English name of 

 honeysuckle is derived from the facility with which 

 children draw forth its trumpet-shaped corolla from 

 the calyx, and thus suck tho honeyed sweets with 

 which it abounds from the nectary. This part of the 

 plant is so formed as in a great measure to bid defi- 

 ance to the industrious bee ; but the hawkmoth rea- 

 dily extracts the honey from the very bottom of the 

 flower ; and as much would still be left to waste in 

 the plant, there are many insects which, by a beauti- 

 ful natural instinct, perforate the tubes at their base, 

 and thus draw forth the honey in a stream. 



The woodbine has a light and elegant air, better calcu- 

 lated to ornament rural groves than the more elaborately 

 finished garden; and a much more suitable climber 

 for the rustic porch than the stately portico. The 

 common honeysuckle will, howerer, grow in almost 

 any situation. This plant is usually propagated either 

 by layers or cuttings, and September is the best month 

 for planting them. 



When we look at the little attention this beautiful 

 climber requires at the hand of man, it must be a great 

 source of regret that it is not planted in greater quan- 

 tities in the parks and public gardens near the metro- 

 polis. We have not even seen it in the Regent's 

 Park, and yet the delightful aroma of its^flowers, and 

 the pleasing tints they exhibit, would form a most 

 interesting feature in the shrubberies, as even the bare 

 trunk of a lightning-scathed tree would serve as a 

 support for its pendulous wreaths. 



HONEYWORT is the Cerinthe major of Linnaeus. 

 They aro European annuals and biennials belonging 

 to lioraginece. 



HOOKERI A (Smith) is one of our British mosses, 

 so called in honour of Dr. Hooker of Glasgow. A 

 bulbous-stemmed plant was also called Hoo/ceria by 

 Salisbury, but is now changed to Brodiaea grandiflora. 



HOOPOE ( Upupa). A genus of birds, ranged by 

 Cuvier in the tenuirostral family of Passerine, and by 

 him restricted to twc species, both of them natives of 

 the eastern continent. When the characters of their 

 feet are taken into the account, these birds rank with 

 the anisodactyli, that is, with those that have the 

 toes of unequal length, the middle and exterior ones 

 united at their bases, and the hind one considerably 

 produced. No general conclusion can, however, be 

 drawn from the possession of this species of toot, tor, 

 though it may always be regarded as an active and 

 efficient one, it is modified so as to suit many kinds pi 

 surfaces. The structure of the feet of these birds is, 

 therefore, now very generally omitted in the descrip- 

 tions of them, or treated as only a very subordinate 

 matter. The generic characters are : the bill very 



HOOPOE. :7 



long and slender, triangular in the section, com- 

 pressed, slightly arched ; the upper mandible longer 

 than the under ; the nostrils oval, basal and lateral, 

 open, and protected by feathers ; there are three toes 

 to the front, the middle and outer one united as far 

 as the first joint, and the hind one is rather long, and 

 has the claw quite straight, or nearly so ; the wings 

 are of mean length, and rounded, the first quill being 

 shorter than the second and third, and the fifth and 

 sixth the longest in the wing ; the tail is composed 

 of ten feathers, all of equal length. 



These characters of the bill, the feet, and the organs 

 of flight, are all well made out, and harmonise so 

 much with each other, that they form a ready and 

 perfect key to the haunts, action, and manner of feed- 

 ing of the birds. The bill is properly an insectivorous 

 bill, intermediate in its form between the bills of the 

 humming-birds and those of the bee-eaters ; but the 

 form of the wings, which fits them more for ascent 

 and descent than for turning rapidly so as to catch 

 prey on the wing, confines the birds to a different 

 mode of finding their food. The feet combine the 

 properties of perching and those of walking feet ; 

 and, while the union of the two outer toes afford a 

 purchase for walking on soft earth, the production 

 and strength of the hind toe, and the shape of its 

 claw, adapt the bird especially for grassy surfaces. 

 On the ground the hoopoes march with a sort of 

 strut, bearing some resemblance to that of the galli- 

 nida? ; and yet they not only perch with great firm- 

 ness upon low bushes and stumps by the margins of 

 the waters, which form their usual roosting-places 

 when watching for their prey, but they can, upon 

 occasion, cling to perpendicular surfaces, though they 

 have not so much command of themselves there as 

 the creepers. It is worthy of remark, that there is a 

 considerable difference in the kind of action of this 

 foot and the zygodactylic foot, which shows how 

 beautifully each of them is fitted for its particular 

 purpose. The zygodactylic foot, from the complete 

 reversal of the outer toe", which is free to its articu- 

 lation, in order that it may have this position, is a foot 

 for rest upon vertical surfaces ; and therefore, though 

 the motions of these birds on such surfaces are sure, 

 they are very slow. Such a foot as that of the hoopoe 

 is, on the other hand, a rapid foot, but not adapted 

 for adhering t.o the same part of a vertical surface for 

 any length of time ; and hence birds which have it 

 are active in their motions, and do not dig insects or 

 larvae out of chinks of trees or other hiding-places, 

 but capture them in the free air, though such long 

 and slender billed ones as the hoopoe can reach that 

 upon which they feed either in thick herbage or at 

 some depth under water. 



The hoopoes are also birds of very powerful wing, 

 though their momentary flight is not so rapid, or 

 their power of turning in the air so great, as that of 

 birds which have the wings larger and more narrow 

 and pointed. We must not in all cases estimate the 

 absolute power of a wing by the length and pointed- 

 ness only ; for those circumstances are adaptations to 

 a particular style of flight, and not to flying generally 

 considered ; for this last purpose, and when the flight 

 is mere transfer from place to place, rather than beat- 

 in" about in the air for food, the broad wing possesses 

 some advantages over the long and narrow one. 

 There is no doubt a limit to this ; but there is a) 

 proportion between the length and breadth, which 

 gives the maximum of power in a carrying wing ; 



