118 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



But this passage, perhaps, we should not have quoted, be- 

 cause of the grave question arising out of the distinction 

 implied between the " woodbine " and the " sweet honey- 

 suckle." However, we will meet the difficulty, because it 

 is one of great interest. The explanation is that there is 

 in English poetry more than one woodbine, but there is 

 only one honeysuckle. The woodbine of Shakespeare was, 

 in all probability, the convolvulus. Gifford pointed out 

 the true meaning of the passage in his note upon a parallel 

 passage in Ben Jonson : 



"Behold 



How the blue bindweed doth itself enfold 

 With honeysuckle, and both these entwine 

 Themselves with briony and jessamine.'' 



Readers of the "divine bard'' may remember that a 

 certain hostess (2 "King Henry IV.," ii. 1) denounces the 

 mighty Falstaff as a "honeysuckle villain " and a " honey- 

 seed rogue/' by which, perhaps, we may understand that 

 she thought his fair words and winning ways made him 

 doubly dangerous as a creditor and a cheat. It is agreeable 

 to turn from the theatrical weaver and the stout knight 

 to the invitation of Hero in " Much Ado about Nothing" 



(iii. 1) to 



" Steal into the pleached bower, 

 Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, 

 Forbid the sun to enter ; like favourites 

 Made proud by princes, that advance their pride 

 Against that power that bred it." 



Now to turn from poetry to the garden itself. There 

 are from eighty to a hundred species of Lonicera adapted 

 for the English garden, out only half a dozen or so have 

 hitherto obtained much attention. The peculiar "per- 

 foliate " character of L. caprifolium is displayed in the illus- 



