—Jas. Whitcomb Riley.
On wind-swept downs near the ocean, on the low hills of the Coast Ranges, or upon the plains of the interior, this charming golden pansy spreads itself in profusion in early spring. It is the darling of the children, who on their way to school gather great handfuls of its brown-eyed blossoms.
You may often see myriads of them dancing on their long stems in the breeze, and showing glimpses of red-brown where their purplish outer petals are turned toward you for the moment. In the shelter of quiet woodlands, its stems are longer and more fragile.
[YELLOW PANSY—Viola pedunculata.]
![[YELLOW PANSY—Viola pedunculata.]](#3624944100741987669_f040.png.id-7385089661829414999.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
TWIN-BERRY.
Lonicera involucrata, Banks. Honeysuckle Family.
Shrubs eight to ten feet high. Leaves.--Three inches long or so. Flowers.—A pair; at the summit of an axillary peduncle; with a conspicuous involucre of four bracts, tinged with red or yellow. Calyx.—Adherent to the ovary; the limb minute or obsolete. Corolla.—Tubular; irregular; half an inch or more long; viscid-pubescent; yellowish. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—Two- or three-celled. Style filiform. Stigma capitate. Berries.—Black-purple. Hab.—Throughout the State; eastward to Lake Superior.
A walk through some moist thicket, or along a stream-bank in March, will reveal the yellow flowers of the twin-berry amid its ample, thin green leaves. These blossoms are always borne in pairs at the summit of the stem, and are surrounded by a leafy involucre, consisting of two pairs of round, fluted bracts. As the berries ripen and become black, these bracts deepen to a brilliant red and make the shrubs much more conspicuous and ornamental than at blossoming-time.