In drops of scarlet rain.[[10]]
The early French Canadians were so struck with its beauty that they sent the plant to France as a specimen of what the wilds of the New World could yield. Perhaps at that time it received its English name which likens it to the gorgeously attired dignitaries of the Roman Church.
PLATE LXXXIII
CARDINAL-FLOWER.—L. cardinalis.
Trumpet Honeysuckle.
Lonicera sempervirens. Honeysuckle Family.
A twining shrub. Leaves.—Entire, opposite, oblong, the upper pairs united around the stem. Flowers.—Deep red without, yellowish within; in close clusters from the axils of the upper leaves. Calyx.—With very short teeth. Corolla.—Trumpet-shaped, five-lobed. Stamens.—Five. Pistil.—One. Fruit.—A red or orange berry.
Many of us are so familiar with these flowers in our gardens that we have, perhaps, considered them “escapes” when we found them brightening the pasture thicket where really they are most at home, appearing at any time from May till October.
The fragrant woodbine, L. grata, is also frequently cultivated. Its natural home is the rocky woodlands, where its sweet-scented whitish or yellowish flowers appear in May. Its stamens and style protrude conspicuously beyond the corolla-tube, which is an inch in length.
The greenish or yellowish flowers of the fly honeysuckle, L. ciliata, grow in pairs. They are found in the rocky woods of May, on an erect, bushy shrub, the leaves of which are all distinct, never meeting about the stem.