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The Honeysuckle
Lonicera caprifolium.
EVERY plant has its place, as every dog has its day, and the very place for this honeysuckle is the wall of a comfortable English cottage, whereon it appears more at home than anywhere else in all the world, not forgetting the woods in the south of Europe, wherein it plays the reveller, and perfumes the breeze. We call it British, and may find it occasionally in a wild state; but it is a doubtful native, although well adapted for naturalisation in woods and thickets and the wilder parts of garden scenes.
The smaller and ever-welcome woodbine (Lonicera peri-clymenum) is beyond doubt indigenous, and is one of the most widely-diffused of our woodland vines, and worthy of its renown in song and story. Titania, addressing the ridiculous weaver of Athens, says:- "I will wind thee in my arms. So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist."
But this passage, perhaps, we should not have quoted, because of the grave question arising out of the distinction implied between the "woodbine" and the "sweet honey-suckle." However, we will meet the difficulty, because it is one of great interest. The explanation is that there is in English poetry more than one woodbine, but there is only one honeysuckle. The woodbine of Shakespeare was, in all probability, the convolvulus. Gifford pointed out the true meaning of the passage in his note upon a parallel passage in Ben Jonson:- "Behold How the blue bindweed doth itself enfold With honeysuckle, and both these entwine Themselves with briony and jessamine." Readers of the "divine bard" may remember that a certain hostess (2 "King Henry IV.," ii.1) denounces the mighty Falstaff as a "honeysuckle villain" and a "honey-seed rogue," by which, perhaps, we may understand that she thought his fair words and winning ways made him doubly dangerous as a creditor and a cheat. It is agreeable to turn from the theatrical weaver and the stout knight to the invitation of Hero in "Much Ado about Nothing" (ii.1) to "Steal into the pleached bower, Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, Forbid the sun to enter; like favourites Made proud by princes, that advance their pride Against that power that bred it."
Now to turn from poetry to the garden itself. There are from eighty to a hundred species of Lonicera adapted for the English garden, but only half a dozen or so have hitherto obtained much attention. The peculiar "perfoliate" character of L. caprifolium is displayed in the illustration, this style of leafage being called by the botanists "connate." Of the common L. periclymenum there are several varieties known-Dutch, Belgian, oak-leaved, late-red, &c., all of which have some degree of special merit; but the variegated-leaved variety is worthless. One of the very best for a good place in the garden is L. sempervirens, the trumpet honeysuckle, an American species, with bold heads of scarlet flowers, which are inodorous. Under the name Lonicera brachypoda we may group half a dozen garden varieties, such as L. Chinensis and L. Japomica; and here we find one of the most beautiful of the family in that called Aureo-reticulata, which is exquisitely rich in its leafage, and well worth attentive observation. It will be noticed that at one time the leaves are lobed like those of the oak-tree, and at another time they are simply ovate or elliptical, without lobes, for they alter in form as they grow, and they are always richly painted with bright-green lines on a ground of gold-yellow or full deep orange, which acquires rich tinges of red when the chills of autumn check the growth. Wherever this plant can be accommodated with a trellis, or can be carried by an arch over a walk, or have careful training up a wall to a height of ten to twenty feet, it should be allowed "a chance." It will grow grandly and flower sweetly, and if it happens to be the only plant of Japan you possess, it will compel you to cherish agreeable thoughts of that interesting country, from which we have derived a very large proportion of our most valued garden flowers.
The winter-flowering honeysuckle (L. fragrantissima) is an extremely useful but altogether unattractive shrub. It grows in a style similar to a lilac, and does not climb or riot at all. Its light green leafage is agreeable in summer; in fact, it is quite a respectable border shrub. But its best quality is its production very early in the year-even in January if the winter be a mild one-of an abundance of small white flowers that are very sweet-scented. The genus Lonicera is named in honour of Adam Lonicer, a physician and naturalist, born at Marpurg in 1528. He studied at Mentz, took the degree of doctor in 1554, and soon after settled at Frankfort, where he practised as a physician. He wrote many books, but one only appears to have acquired a lasting renown; this is the "Naturalis Historiae Opus novum," in two parts, first published in 1551 and 1555. In the second part there is much curious information about plants, and particularly those that grow near Frankfort; and it contains a list of plants in various languages to which the student of botanical terminology may refer with advantage.