KJDD : NOTES ON THE OAK-LEAVED WOODBINE. 293 



it SO often and for so long a time ? As for myself I know none, and I do 

 not know that one such can be named. I think I may be permitted, when I 

 encounter such assertions or negations without proof, brought against me, to 

 pay them no attention but to pass on. Sometimes, at the sight of such 

 gross ignorance, which displays itself so pom|)ously in certain books and 

 which says it is, or believes itself to be, wisdom, one can scarcely sup- 

 press a feeling of disdain and pity. Still, such a feeling is not good ; for it 

 is the duty of a critic to shew himseK equally humble as indulgent ; he 

 has good need to remember that human infirmity is such, that we have, all of 

 us, more or less, a closed eye upoit some corner of truth. 



In addressing you thus lengthily upon some important points 

 which are connected both with your studies and my own, my desire is that 

 you should not feel displeased or think me importunate. You will doubtless 

 see in them a mark of the confidence I have in the rectitude of your judg- 

 ment and the sincerity of your labours. You are not I am sure, one of those 

 whom the truth makes afraid, and who begin by at once turning their backs 

 upon it for fear of meeting it on their route. Invited by me to search after 

 truth on the ground of experiment and fact, I doubt not you will follow 

 up the track, drawing many others after you, to the great advantage of that 

 science which is so dear to you, and the advancement of which is the constant 

 aim of all your efforts. 



LyoTiy 22nd January, 1866. 



NOTES O^T THE OAK-LEAYED WOODBII^E. 



By Henry Waring Kidd. 



This seems scarcely to be the variety, querdfolium, of Oajj^rifolium 

 (Lonicera) Periclymemim, of Loudon's " Encyclope/lia of Plants," as only 

 some of the leaves are indented, so I only consider it an approach to that 

 variety. 



In some specimens the likeness to oak, is very striking indeed, but the 

 segments are always rounder than in the leaf of the oak, besides which the 

 oval figure of the woodbine leaf, is never lost. 



The oaken leaves I always find in pairs — in long rumiers, the first pair 

 arc generally the most deepl}/- indented, tlic second pau' less so, and soon 



