THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
25 
and bird attendants. A halt was called in the regular procession 
of bloom that may or may not have affected the whole period of 
blossoming. But this is a fact that can only be obtained by ex- 
tending the observations over many seasons. 
To the reader unfamiliar with the Loniccra, it n:ay be said that 
the long, slender, twining stems bear their leax'es in pairs upon 
opposite sides of the stem. Between the bases of the leaf stalk and 
the stem above, a bud arises which quickly forms a stem an inch 
or so long, bearing a pair of small leaves, and between these two 
flower buds form. It is thus seen that at each joint or node upon 
the stem there are two brief side shoots each bearing two flowers 
— that is, fotir blossoms are produced with but very few excep- 
tions at a node, or none at all. When once a series of flowers has 
begun there are no breaks in it until the end is reached. The four 
buds very regularly open upon the same afternoon or evening, and 
display their four white corcjlla lobes through the live-long night. 
The next morning they begin to take on a suggestion of cream 
color, which rapidly develops as the day declines, and becomes 
strongly in contrast with the four swelling white buds of the next 
younger node that are destined to follow along the same road 
twenty-four hours later. By the second evening the flowers have 
become orange-yellow and lost their fragrance — at least it is lost 
in the richness of the younger blossoms which become the only 
ones before which the moths and humming birds pause for their 
evening draughts of nectar. Of hundreds of such transient visit- 
ations the writer has never seen an old flower considered for an 
instant. They appear as oblivious to them as if they were not 
there. It may be that the eyes of the night flyers are color blind 
to the hybrid yellow-orange, while the}' are sharp indeed upon the 
white. With thoughts like these in mind I have watched the 
hedge-row as the darkness deepened until the old flowers passed 
from sight and only the fresh white ones stood out distinctly 
against the background of the obscured vegetation. 
Sometimes one of the quartette of blooms gets belated and 
comes into flower along with the four upon the next younger 
node : but then it is out of place and the chances for visits are di- 
