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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