CHAP. LXIII CAPRIFOLIA'CEiE. LONl'CER^. K)l/> 



and which he had before described as 



■ " The pleached bower, 

 Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, 

 Forbid the sun to enter." 



" Gentle as are the first embraces of the honeysuckle, and of other twining 

 shrubs," Mr. Denson observes {Mag. Nat. Hist., vi. p. 330.), " while their 

 stein is yet tender, and through that tenderness, powerless ; yet they become 

 with the age, size, strength, hardness, and consequent incapacity for dilatation 

 of the stem or branch, effective agents of an obviously injurious constriction ; 

 for the coils of woody-stemmed twining plants are scarcely in any, perhaps in 

 no, species enlarged in capacity so fast as is the diameter of the trunk, stem, 

 or branch, which these coils encircle ; that is, presuming the supporting tree 

 or shrub to be in a healthy and freely growing condition." Cowper, alluding 

 to the constrictive powers of the honeysuckle, has the following beautifully 

 descriptive lines in his poem, Retirement. 



" As woodbine weds the plant within her reach, 

 Rough elm, or smooth-grain'd ash, or glossy beech, 

 In spiral rings ascends the trunk, and lays 

 Her golden tassels on the leafy sprays ; 

 But does a mischief while she lends a grace, 

 Straitening its growth by such a strict embrace." 



All the varieties of the common honeysuckle are beautiful and fragrant; 

 and, either trained against a wall, twining round a pole and over a parasol top, 

 or climbing and rambling among bushes, form great ornaments to gardens, par- 

 ticularly when planted against other trees; which, however, if not strong 

 enough to resist their pressure, are seriously injured by it, their trunks and 

 branches sometimes becoming indented like a screw. (See Mag. Nat. Hist.,xi. 

 p. 331.) In a state of art and culture, where the gardenesque is the prevailing 

 expression, honeysuckles, or other climbing or twining plants, should never be 

 planted against trees or bushes, but always by themselves, against walls, rods, 

 stakes, or other artificial supports. The reason is, that it is only when they are 

 planted apart from other plants that they can be properly cultivated, and, con- 

 sequently, display the expression of the gardenesque. Where the object is 

 merely picturesque beauty, the honeysuckle may be planted close to the 

 root of a tree ; and, being trained up its trunk, and allowed to twine among its 

 branches, it may be considered as displaying the elegant picturesque. Planted 

 among bushes, and allowed to grow up among them without any training 

 whatever, the expression will be that of the common, or rural, picturesque ; or, 

 if the shrubs are chiefly of foreign kinds, and are arranged in a dug shrubbery, 

 the expression may be designated the shrubbery picturesque. These terms 

 are of very little consequence in themselves ; but they are introduced here to 

 show that very different kinds of beauty are produced in plantations, according 

 to the manner of planting, and the kinds of plants chosen. The different 

 varieties of common honeysuckle may be propagated by cuttings ; but so large 

 a proportion of these do not succeed, owing, as is supposed, to the large space 

 in the centre of the shoot admitting the wet during winter, and rotting the 

 upper part of the cutting, that the more common mode of propagation is by 

 layers. Both layers and cuttings are made in the autumn, as soon as the 

 leaves have dropped ; and they become sufficiently rooted in one year. It has 

 been recommended, in order to prevent the water from entering the hollow 

 part of the shoot, and rotting the cuttings, to make the latter of double the 

 usual length, and insert both ends in the ground, so that the cutting should 

 present the appearance of a bow ; but this mode, which, it is supposed, would 

 produce two plants from each cutting, can scarcely be said to have been pro- 

 perly tried. (See Encyc. of Gard. y edit. 1835, § 2882.) 



-i 2. L. CaprifoYium L. The Goat's-leaf, or pale perfoliate, Honeysuckle. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., p. 246. ; Dec. Prod., 4. p. 331. ; Don's Mill., 3. p. 444. 



Si/nontjmc. Pericly^nenum perfoliatum Ger. Emac, p. 891. 



Engravings. Engl. Bot., t. 799. ; Jacq. Austr., t. 357. ; Engl. Gard. Cat., 14. t. 5. , Dodon. Pempt., 



3z 4 



