XIX. 2. THE GUELDER ROSE. 363 



fives. Pedicel a slender, white thread, ending in a short calyx 

 with five acute segments. Corolla a very short tube with five 

 ovate, rounded divisions. Stamens five, short, attached to the 

 corolla and alternating with its segments. Stigmas five, brown, 

 sessile, on a conical ovary. The lower leaflets have often one 

 or two leaf-like appendages. The berries are small, dark pur- 

 ple, or nearly black, when ripe, with crimson juice. This plant 

 has a near resemblance to the Common Elder of Europe, S. 

 nigra, except that the latter is a tree of twenty or thirty feet in 

 height. Sir J. E. Smith said of this, that the English "uncer- 

 tain summer is established by the time the elder is in full flower, 

 and is entirely gone when its berries are ripe." The same 

 might be said with equal truth of our elder, which, like that, 

 flowers in June and ripens its fruit in September ; unless we 

 take into consideration that transient return of soft weather 

 and sunshine, called the Indian summer. Much use has always 

 been made, in every part of Europe, of the medicinal and eco- 

 nomical virtues of their elder. The same may be made of ours. 

 An infusion of the juice of the berry is a delicate test for acids 

 and alkalies.* An infusion of the bruised leaves is used by 

 gardeners to expel insects from vines. A wholesome, sudorific 

 tea is made of the flowers. The unopened flower-buds form, 

 when pickled, an excellent substitute for capers. The abund- 

 ant pith is the best substance for the pith-balls used in electrical 

 experiments ; and the hollow shoots are in great use with boys 

 for pop-guns and fifes. 



XIX. 2. THE GUELDER ROSE. VIBURNUM. L. 



A genus of more than fifty species of shrubs or small trees, 

 with opposite branches, often more or less distinctly angular ; 

 opposite, undivided, or lobed leaves, with footstalks ; and white 

 flowers in terminal cymes, those of the margin sometimes sterile 

 and with the corolla much enlarged. 



* See Annals of the Lyceum of New York, p. 42. 



