Lonicera albertii Reg.

A deciduous shrub of low, spreading habit, unarmed, becoming about 4 ft high and twice as much in diameter; young shoots glabrous or glandular, slender. Leaves linear-oblong, 5⁄8 to 11⁄4 in. long, about 1⁄8 in. wide, bluntish at the apex, with often a few teeth near the base, blue-green, glabrous; stalk very short. Flowers rosy-lilac, fragrant, produced in pairs from the leaf-axils, each pair on a stalk about 1⁄4 in. long. Corolla-tube 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in. long, slender, cylindrical, glabrous outside, downy inside; lobes spreading horizontally, oblong, giving the flower a diameter of about 3⁄4 in. Stalk of the stamens twice as long as the anthers. Berries 1⁄3 in. in diameter, purplish red, not united. Bot. Mag., t. 7394.

Native of the mountains of Turkestan; introduced by Albert Regel to St Petersburg about 1880 and described by his father Dr Eduard Regel. It is sometimes regarded as a variety of L. spinosa (Decne.) Walp., which inhabits the inner, arid ranges of the north-western Himalaya. This differs from L. albertii in its sturdier, spiny, sometimes leafless, branches, in the ovate lobes of the corolla, and in the filaments of the stamens being only as long as the anther. L. albertii is a pleasing shrub of graceful habit, very distinct from other cultivated honey­suckles in its narrow, bluish foliage.