Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/152

many cases the effect signified by its English name. If not its first discoverer, Spamnan, in 1777, was the first who described and figured this bird, which he met with in the Cape Colony (Phil. Transactions, Ixvii. pp. 42-47, pi. i.), giving it the name of Cuculus indicator, its zygodactylous feet with the toes placed in pairs two before and two behind inducing the belief that it must be referred to that genus. Vieillot in 1816 elevated it to the rank of a genus, Indicator ; but it was still considered to belong to the Family Cuculidce (its asserted parasitical habits lending force to that belief) by all systematists except Blyth and Jerdon, until it was shewn by Mr Blanford (Ob?. Geol. and Zool. Abyssinia, pp. 308, 309) and Mr Sclater (Ibis, 1870, pp. 176-180) that it was more allied to the Barbets, Capitonidce, and, in consequence, was then made the type of a distinct Family, Indicator idee. In the mean while other species had been discovered, some of them differing sufficiently to warrant Sundevall s foundation of a second genus, Prodotiscus, of the group. The Honey- Guides are small birds, the largest hardly exceeding a Lark in size, and of plain plumage, with what appears to be a very Sparrow-like bill. Mr Sharpe, in a revision of the Family published in 1876 (Orn. Miscellany, i. pp. 192- 209), recognizes ten species of the genus Indicator, to which another has since been added by Dr Beichenow (Journ. fur Ornitholoc/ie, 1877, p. 110), and two of Prodotiscus. Four species of the former, including /. sparrmani, which was the first made known, are found in South Africa, and one of the latter. The rest inhabit other parts of the same continent, except /. archipelagicus, which seems to be peculiar to Borneo, and /. xanthonotiis, which occurs on the Himalayas from the borders of Afghanistan to Bhotan. The interrupted geographical distribution of this genus is a very curious fact, no species having been found in the Indian or Malayan peninsula to connect the outlying forms with those of Africa, which must be regarded as their metropolis.

(a. n.)

HONEYSUCKLE (M.E., honysocle, i.e., any plant from which honey may be sucked, cf. Ang.-Sax., himi-suge, privet; Germ., Geissblatt; Fr., Chevrefeuille), Lonicerus, L., a genus of climbing, erect, or prostrate shrubs, of the natural order Caprifo- liacece, so named after the German botanist Adam Lonicer. The British species are L. Peridij- menum, the woodbine, L. Caprifolium, and L. Xy- losteum. Some of the garden varieties of the woodbine are very beauti ful, and are held in high esteem for their delici ous fragrance ; even the wild plant, with its pale flowers, compensating for its sickly looks " with never - cloying odours." The North American sub- evergreen L. semper- virens, with its fine heads of blossoms, commonly -called the trumpet honey suckle, is a distinct and beautiful species pro ducing both scarlet and yellow flowered varieties, and the Japanese L. brachypoda aureo-reticulata is esteemed for its charmingly variegated leaves. 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.

In the western counties of England, and generally by agri culturists, the name honeysuckle is applied to the meadow clover, Trifolium pratcnse. Another plant of the same leguminous family, Hedytarum coronarium, a very hand some hardy biennial often seen in old-fashioned collections of garden plants, is commonly called the French honey suckle. The name is moreover applied with various affixes to several other totally different plants. Thus wliite honeysuckle and false honeysuckle are names for the North American Azalea viscosa ; Australian or heath honey suckle is the Australian Banksia serrata, Jamaica honey suckle the Passiflora laurifolia, dwarf honeysuckle the widely spread Cor mis suecica, Virgin Mary s honeysuckle the European Pulmonaria officinalis, while West Indian honeysuckle is the 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, are 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.

HONFLEUR, a town of France, at the head of a canton in the arrondissement of Pont 1 Eveque in the department of Calvados, is situated on the south side of the estuary of the Seine directly opposite Havre, and about 10 miles to the north of Pont 1 Eveque and 37 miles to the north-east of Caen. With the general railway system of northern France it is connected by a line running by Pont 1 Eveque to Lisieux; and a concession was granted in 1879 for another line to Pont-Audemer. As a town Honfleur has the typical aspect of a small old-fashioned seaport, equally heedless of symmetry in its plan and cleanliness in its economy. The most noteworthy of its buildings is the church of St Catherine, constructed entirely of timber work and plaster, and consisting of two parallel naves, of which the more ancient is supposed to date from the end of the 15th century. A process of restoration is at present (1880) going on under Government supervision. Within the church are several antique statues and a painting by Jordaens- Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The church tower stands on the other side of a street. St Leonard s dates from the 17th century, with the exception of its fine ogival portal and rose-window belonging to the 16th, and its octagonal tower erected in the 18th. The ruins of a 16th century castle, and several houses of the same period, are the only buildings of antiquarian interest. The town-house, which contains the exchange and the com mercial court, is of modern erection. On the rising ground above the town is the chapel of Notre Dame de Grace, a shrine much resorted to by pilgrim sailors, which was founded in 1034 by Robert the Magnificent of Normandy, and rebuilt in 1606. Honfleur is the seat of a commercial college, a school of hydrography, a chamber of commerce, a custom-house, and various other Government offices, as well as of several consular establishments. The harbour, which consists of three basins, has been greatly improved between 1860 and 1875 by the extension of the pier and the formation of a new channel, which has a depth of 21 feet at neap tides and of 24 to 27 at spring-tides ; and a fourth basin, decreed by the Government in 1879, will be completed by 1881. A reservoir of 120 acres in extent