FLOWERING SHRUBS 



The embryo blossoms of the Red Elder are formed soon 

 after the fall of the leaf in October, and may be distinctly 

 seen in the large globular buds which adorn the bare 

 branches in winter; they are closely packed within the 

 protecting cases, like hard-green seeds, each flower-bud per- 

 fect, as if ready to unfold in the first warm sunshine, but 

 not so, for the embryo flower must lie dormant in its cradle 

 till the next spring, when the warmth of the May sunshine 

 opens it out to life and light. The blossoms- are succeeded 

 by an abundance of small berries, which, during the month 

 of June, ripen and adorn the landscape with their brilliant 

 scarlet hues. The juice of the ripe fruit is a thin acid, 

 slightly partaking of the peculiar flavor of the wood, not 

 agreeable but perfectly wholesome. The gay berries are a 

 favorite food with wild birds, which soon strip the trees of 

 their ornamental clusters. 



TWIN-FLOWERED HONEYSUCKLE Lonicera ciliata (Muhl.). 



Though we have not in Canada the sweet-scented and 

 graceful Woodbine of the bowery English lanes and hedge- 

 rows the theme of many a poet's lay, from Shakespeare 

 and Milton down to Bloomfield and Clare yet we have some 

 charming flowering shrubs that are too lovely to be dis- 

 regarded by the lover of Nature. Among our wild native 

 species there is not one more elegant than the Twin-flowered 

 Honeysuckle, or Bush Honeysuckle. It is one of the earliest 

 of our shrubs to unfold its tender light-green leaves. A few 

 warm days in April if the season be mild and we may 

 perceive the slender sprays assuming a welcome tint of 

 verdure, the glad promise of spring. 



The ovate leaves, of pale green, are delicately fringed with 

 silken hairs, at first of a slight purplish tint. The flowers 

 appear in pairs, connected twin-like from the axils of the 



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