Aug. 1889.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



157 



The Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum.) 



By J. P. SOUTTER. 



" First a cloud of fragrance. Then one sees 



Coronets of ivory, coral, and gold, 

 Full of luscious treasure for the bees, 



In their hedgerow-wreathage manifold 

 Clustering, or outswinging at their ease, 



Watching in the hayfield those who hold 



Scythe and rake, or overpeering bold 

 Dusty wayfarers 'twixt roadside trees. 



Honeysuckle-scented summer night ! 



Leaves above and dewy woods around 



Save the purring night jar not a sound, 

 Save the tender glowing stars no light, — 

 Thou hast hid thy lovers out of sight, 



Bower'd, or wandering through enchanted ground." 



Few of our native wildflowers are better known or more beloved 

 than the honeysuckle. And scarcely anything fairer can be pictured 

 than a shady thicket in leafy June or sultry July, when its trees and 

 shrubs are clothed and canopied with the luscious creamy clusters of 

 sweet-scented flowers of the woodbine. Or to see it clambering over 

 the rocky surface of some rugged precipice, festooning the shady 

 grottos and caves with its slender twining interlacing branches and 

 feathery fringes of blossoms. What memories does it revive of rural 

 cottages with rustic porches buried in its delicate greenery, where : — 

 " The honeysuckle round the porch hath woven its wavy bowers ; 



and its delicious odour haunts one since childhood's days, when to gather 

 a bouquet of its fragrant flowers was a chief event of a country ramble. 



The honeysuckle is remarkable for its woody twining stems, these 

 in vigorous plants will grow six, eight, or more feet in a single season. 

 At first they are covered with a beautifully pink and downy epidermis, 

 but as they get older it cracks and ultimately peels off in great flakes 

 or long stripes, giving the old stems a curiously ragged and naked 

 appearance. A noteworthy property of the woodbine stem is this 

 power of twining around an adjacent slender support. This faculty 

 of climbing is a provision bestowed upon many weak-stemmed plants, 

 by means of which they can rear themselves into the air and light, 

 and thus raise their flowers into the sunshine above the surrounding 

 undergrowth. The diverse ways by which they attain this desirable 

 end are very various, in some cases, as peas, it is by means of tend- 

 rils—fairy-like fingers which seize hold of neighbouring twigs, and 



