Lonicera periclymenum L. Caprifoliaceae. Honeysuckle Distribution: Europe. This shrubby, fragrant, white-flowered honeysuckle is named for Adam Lonitzer (Lonicerus) (1528–86). German botanist, physician and author of Naturalis historiae opus novum (1551, 1555) and the Kreuterbuch (1557)

professor of mathematics at the University of Marburg (Oakeley, 2012). Gerard (1633), using the name Periclymenum, woodbinde or honisuckles, says that the flowers stop ‘pissing of blood’ and can be used for soreness of the throat and ‘the secret parts’. Modern literature (Frohne, 2004) reports that honeysuckles are poisonous and that the berries cause vomiting and the leaves purgation – a sure sign of toxicity. Sucking the nectar from the flowers appears acceptable, but toxicity if any is unknown. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.