CAPRIFOLIACE^ 805 



from the apex of the cell, resupinate ; raphe dorsal ; raicropyle superior. Fruit 

 drupaceous, crowned with the remnants of the style. Seeds with copious fleshy 

 albumen ; seed-coat membranaceous, adherent to the albumen; embryo minute, 

 near the hilum ; cotyledons ovoid or ovate ; radicle terete, erect. 



The Honeysuckle family with ten genera is most abundant in the temper- 

 ate regions of the northern hemisphere, with a few species extending into the 

 tropics and to beyond the tropics in the southern hemisphere. Many of the 

 species, especially of Lonicera, Sambucus, and Viburnum, are cultivated in 

 gardens for the beauty of their flowers and fruits. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Leaves unequally pinnate ; fruit -with 3-5 nutlets. 1. Sambucus. 



Leaves simple ; fruit with 1 stone. 2. Viburnum. 



1. SAMBUCUS, L. Elder. 



Trees or shrubs, with stout branches containing thick white or dark- yellow-brown 

 pith, and scaly buds. Leaves unequally pinnate, deciduous, with serrate or laciniate 

 leaflets, the base of the petioles naked, glandular or furnished with a stipule-like 

 leaflet; stipels small, usually setaceous, often 0. Flowers small, in broad terminal 

 corymbose cymes, their bracts and bractlets lanceolate, acute, scarious, caducous, 

 the bractlets sometimes 0; calyx-tube ovoid, the limb 3-o-lobed or toothed; corolla 

 rotate or slightly campanulate, equally 3-o-parted; stamens o; filaments filiform or 

 subulate; ovary inferior or partly superior, 3-o-celled; style abbreviated, thick, and 

 conical, 3-5-lobed, and stigmatic at the apex. Fruit subglobose, with juicy flesh, and 

 3-5 oblong cartilaginous punctate-rugulose 1-seeded nutlets full and rounded on 

 the back and rounded at the ends. Seeds filling the cavity of the nutlets, pale 

 brown; cotyledons ovoid. 



Sambucus with about twelve species is widely and generally distributed through 

 the temperate parts of North America, Europe, and Asia, and inhabits high mountain 

 ranges within the tropics, and Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. Of the four 

 North American species two are arborescent. Sambucus possesses cathartic and 

 emetic properties in the bark; the flowers are excitant and sudorific, and the juice 

 of the fruit is alterative and laxative. The dried flowers of the European Sam- 

 bucus nigra, L., are used in the preparation of an aromatic distilled water and in 

 flavoring lard, and the hard and compact wood is made into combs and mathematical 

 instruments. The large pithy shoots furnish children with pop-guns, pipes, and 

 whistles; and the fruit of some of the species is cooked and eaten. 



Sambucus, the name of the Elder-tree, is believed to have been derived from 

 aajx^vxih a musical instrument, probably in allusion to the use of the pithy stems. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Leaves and young shoots more or less pubescent or cinereo-canescent ; fruit without bloom. 



1. S. Mexicana (E, G, H). 

 Leaves and young shoots glabrous ; fruit whitened by a glaucous bloom. 



2. S. glauca (B, F, G). 



