OR, PLAIN 



belongs to a genus of beautiful 

 flowering shrubs, highly odori- 

 ferous, and most of them twining. 



In the woodbine is seen an 

 exemplification of that curious 

 natural law that governs the 

 movement of twining plants, in 

 obedience to which the stems 

 and tendrils of each species 

 constantly twine in the same 

 direction. The woodbine, for 

 instance, always twines from left to 

 right, and the white convolvulus, 

 or bind-weed, does the same ; 

 while the black briony, an equally 

 common plant, takes the opposite 

 direction, twining from right to 

 left.* 



Like most British twiners, the 

 honeysuckle follows the sun. 

 The botanical name of the genus 

 to which it belongs, caprifolium, 

 signifies a goat-leaf, that is to 

 say, a leaf which climbs like a 

 goat. There are five or six 

 varieties found wild in Britain : 

 the woodbine, the late red, the 

 oak-leaved, the Dutch, and the 

 white Italian ; and there are 

 several evergreen species com- 

 mon to "North America and 

 Canada. 



The bird cherry is an orna- 

 mental tree, having a rich purple 

 bark, white flowers, 9, berries, 10, 

 successively green, red, and black. 

 This tree is of the same genus as the 

 cultivated cherry, but its berries 

 are nauseousjfco the human taste, 

 though birds are fond of them. 

 The bark is useful for medicinal 

 purposes, and the wood, which 

 is beautifully veined, is us ad for 

 cabinet work in France. Trees 

 of the plum and cherry kinds, 



* Caleman'tt Woodlands, Heaths, -nd {Itd-jea. 



TEACHING. 271 



again, afford striking examples of 

 what has been achieved by cul- 

 tivation. Some of them have 

 been introduced from America, 

 others from Jamaica, Japan, 

 Siberia, &c. One of them, the 

 lauro-cerasus, or common cherry 

 laurel, is now one of the most 

 popular evergreens. It was first 

 introduced in England, in the 



687. 



garden of Mr. James Cole, of 

 Highgate, in 1576, when in 

 winter it used to be carefully 

 covered with a blanket ! In 

 less than half a century after- 

 wards, it was common in English 

 gardens. Another of the tribe, 

 mahhaleb, flowers profusely, and 

 emits an odour resembling that 

 of the clematis. Its fruit is 

 round, shining, and black, and 

 so hard that the berries have 

 been used as beads by Catholics. 

 The cultivated cherry-tree be- 

 longs to the same genus, and 



