158 THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



thus elevate themselves ; or it may be holdfast roots as in the ivy, 

 by which it can crawl up the ruined wall, or rugged cliff, or giant 

 tree ; or it may be hooked prickles as of the rose and bramble which 

 enables these aggressive plants to scramble up, through and over the 

 hedges and thickets ; or yet again, as in the hop, convolvulus, and 

 honeysuckle, the stem itself clasps and encircles its support. It is 

 interesting to watch a stem such as the honeysuckle in its attempts to 

 seize hold of a support. It first stretches out a long slender shoot, 

 gradually lengthening as it grows, and unceasingly circling round and 

 round in a direction following the course of the sun, if it reaches a 

 suitable support it twines round it in an ascending spiral from left to 

 right. Should no external aid be near, if it meets with another shoot 

 of the same bush, the two will lovingly embrace, and on the principle 

 of " Union is strength," will twine round each other, and thus gain an 

 added strength to stand erect. Should all these fail the weak stem 

 soon lies prostrate on the ground. 



Owing to the mode of growth of our forest trees, i.e., by annual fresh 

 layers of wood being laid on externally to that already formed — hence 

 their increase in diameter — the presence of honeysuckle in young 

 plantations is apt to be injurious, because its tough woody stem, 

 tenaciously clasping the young tender growing sapling prevents its 

 due expansion, and ultimately it would die, strangulated by the all 

 too powerful embrace of its too closely attached friend. As a first 

 result, singularly channelled spiral grooves are formed on the young 

 tree by the endeavours of the descending sap to force a passage over 

 the impeding barrier. These eccentric growths are often sought after 

 and made into walking sticks curiously carved by Nature's own 

 fingers. As a decorative plant for walls, trellises, or to cover decay- 

 ing stumps or trees the honeysuckle is invaluable. It leafs very early, 

 in mild winters it is not unusual to find it with fully developed leaves 

 in February, and its foliage withstands strong sunshine as well as 

 frost, and is not so liable to be devoured by predatory insects as some 

 others. Yet the individual leaves are often most singularly etched as 

 it were, by the meandering track of a burrowing larva, which eats for 

 itself a winding and ever widening track betwixt the upper and under 

 surface of the leaf, yet never piercing the epidermis till it is ready to 

 to emerge into the open air. Its circuitous course can be traced by 

 the white trail it leaves, which looks as if drawn in chalk on the 

 green substance of the leaf. 



The honeysuckle flowers are borne in dense clusters of ten to 

 twenty at the extremities of the branches. Each little round ovary is 



