XIX. 1. THE PANICLED ELDER. 361 



The plants of this family are shrubs or small trees, with ap- 

 parently articulated branches and young stems containing pith 

 of extraordinary thickness and durability ; simple or com- 

 pound, opposite leaves ; perfect and regular flowers in broad, 

 terminal cymes; a five-cleft, persistent calyx, adhering almost 

 throughout to the ovary ; a flve-lobed bell- or wheel-shaped 

 corolla, with lobes alternate with the parts of the calyx; five 

 stamens inserted in the tube of the corolla and alternate with 

 its lobes ; an ovary with one, three, or five cells, and an ovule 

 in each ; and a fruit, which is a pulpy or fleshy drupe, with 

 one or three, one-celled, one-seeded nuts. 



Two genera, the Elder and Viburnum are found here, flower- 

 ing shrubs or low trees, very widely diffused in distant regions 

 of the northern temperate zone ; and, in New England, the con- 

 spicuous ornaments of the borders of fields and woods and the 

 sides of enclosures, in the early part of summer. 



The Elder has compound leaves and a pulpy fruit with three 

 nuts ; the Viburnum has simple leaves and a fleshy fruit with 

 one nut. 



XIX. 1. THE ELDER. SAMBUCUS. Tournefort. 



A genus of about twenty species of shrubs or perennial herbs, 

 with a penetrating odor. Leaves opposite, pinnate, with the 

 leaflets serrate, cut or laciniate, with two stipules or glands at 

 the base of each. Flowers white or somewhat flesh-colored, 

 usually fragrant, in compound cymes. There are two species 

 in this State. 



Sp. 1. The Panicled Elder. >S'. pubens. Michaux. 



This is usually a coarse-looking bush, four to six feet high, 

 with a large, whitish stalk, becoming brown when old, dotted 

 with rusty, oblong dots, which enlarge and give a rough and 

 warty appearance to the older and darker part of the stem. 



The leaves are opposite, on large, round, fleshy footstalks, 

 channelled above. The leaflets are five or seven, ovate-lance- 

 shaped, rounded or acute, sometimes heart-shaped at base, 

 47 



