HONEYMOON

honeymoon, the first month after marriage. lord avebury in his _origin of civilization_ suggests that the seclusion usually associated with this period is a survival of marriage by capture, and answers to the period during which the husband kept his wife in retirement, to prevent her from appealing to her relatives for release. others suggest that as the moon commences to wane as soon as it is at its full, so does the mutual affection of the wedded pair, the "honeymoon" (with this derivation) not necessarily referring to any definite period of time. honeysuckle (mid. eng., _honysocle_, i.e. any plant from which honey may be sucked,--cf. a.-s. _huni-suge_, privet; ger. _geissblatt_; fr. _chevrefeuille_), botanical name _lonicera_, a genus of climbing, erect or prostrate shrubs, of the natural order _caprifoliaceae_, so named after the 16th-century german botanist adam lonicer. the british species is _l. periclymenum_, the woodbine; _l. caprifolium_ and _l. xylosteum_ are naturalized in a few counties in the south and east of england. some of the garden varieties of the woodbine are very beautiful, and are held in high esteem for their delicious fragrance, even the wild plant, with its pale flowers, compensating for its sickly looks "with never-cloying odours." the north american sub-evergreen _l. sempervirens_, with its fine heads of blossoms, commonly called the trumpet honeysuckle, the most handsome of all the cultivated honeysuckles, is a distinct and beautiful species producing both scarlet and yellow flowered varieties, and the japanese _l. flexuosa_ var. _aureoreticulata_ is esteemed for its charmingly variegated leaves netted with golden yellow. the fly honeysuckle, _l. xylosteum_, a hardy shrub of dwarfish, erect habit, and _l. tatarica_, of similar habit, both european, are amongst the oldest english garden shrubs, and bear axillary flowers of various colours, occurring two on a peduncle. there are numerous other species, many of them introduced to our gardens, and well worth cultivating in shrubberies or as climbers on walls and bowers, either for their beauty or the fragrance of their blossoms. [illustration: honeysuckle.--(a) flowering branch; (b) flower, nat. size; (c) fruit, slightly reduced.] in the western counties of england, and generally by agriculturists, the name honeysuckle is applied to the meadow clover, _trifolium pratense_. another plant of the same family (leguminosae) _hedysarum coronarium_, a very handsome hardy biennial often seen in old-fashioned collections of garden plants, is commonly called the french honeysuckle. the name is moreover applied with various affixes to several other totally different plants. thus white honeysuckle and false honeysuckle are names for the north american _azalea viscosa_; australian or heath honeysuckle is the australian _banksia serrata_, jamaica honeysuckle, _passiflora laurifolia_, dwarf honeysuckle the widely spread _cornus suecica_, virgin mary's honeysuckle the european _pulmonaria officinalis_, while west indian honeysuckle is _tecoma capensis_, and is also a name applied to _desmodium_. the wood of the fly honeysuckle is extremely hard, and the clear portions between the joints of the stems, when their pith has been removed, were stated by linnaeus to be utilized in sweden for making tobacco-pipes. the wood is also employed to make teeth for rakes; and, like that of _l. tatarica_, it is a favourite material for walking-sticks. honeysuckles (_lonicera_) flourish in any ordinary garden soil, but are usually sadly neglected in regard to pruning. this should be done about march, cutting out some of the old wood, and shortening back some of the younger growths of the preceding year. (j. ws.)