360 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



at base, beautifully tapering, acuminate, and serrate, smooth 

 above, slightly fringed with bent hairs on the margin, and 

 sometimes a little hairy on the veins beneath. The flowers, 

 which are yellow, are terminal, or in the axils of the upper 

 leaves; usually three on a stalk, of which the middle one is 

 commonly sessile. The seed-vessel is very long, egg-shaped, 

 with a long, taper point, crowned with the awl-shaped segments 

 of the calyx. A variety occurs with the leaves narrower and 

 thicker, much smaller, and constantly acute at base. 





FAMILY XIX. THE ELDER FAMILY. VIBURNEJE. Bartling. 



Closely allied to the Honeysuckle Family, with which it 

 has, until recently, been united, this small family, embracing 

 about eighty species, found, generally, in the temperate regions 

 of the northern hemisphere, is strikingly distinguished by its 

 habit and mode of flowering. Many of the species have beauti- 

 ful flowers and foliage, and are favorites in ornamental gardens. 

 The snow-ball, so great a favorite in many countries of Europe 

 and in this, is a sterile variety of Viburnum opulus. The fruits 

 are, generally, acid or astringent, sometimes purgative. The 

 sweet flowers of the common elder, both of Europe and of this 

 country, are sudorific, and the European species has been used 

 as such from ancient times. They are packed in casks, by the 

 French, with fruit, to give it an agreeable odor. Elder-berry 

 rob, and wine, have long enjoyed, in England, an apparently 

 well deserved reputation. The leaves and inner bark of these 

 same elders are offensive, and have emetic and particularly 

 purgative qualities in a powerful degree. The fruit of some 

 species of Viburnum are austere and astringent ; of others, not 

 unpleasant to the taste, and capable of forming an article of 

 food. The Wayfaring Tree, the Guelder Rose, and the Laurus- 

 tinus, all species of Viburnum, are ancient favorites in England 

 and other parts of Europe ; the latter for the precious property 

 of flowering, in warm countries, through the winter. 



