PENTANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Sambucus. 109 



Root fle.shy, creeping, difficult of extirpation. S/em5 annual, sim- 

 ple, erect, leafy, about a yard high, roundish, though very deeply 

 and unequally furrowed. Leaves dark green, nearly smooth, 

 with ovate-lanceolate, acute, sharply serrated leaflets, unequal 

 at their base, some of them 4 or 5 inches long. Stipulas large, 

 leafy, cut, sometimes accompanying 2 or 3 of the lowest pairs 

 of leaflets, as well as the main footstalk. Cymes first 3-cleft, 

 then variously and copiously branched, hairy. Fl. all stalked, 

 of a dull purplish hue, with thick, upright, white Jilamerits, whose 

 anthers are reddish. Berries globose, black, not always perfected. 

 Seeds 3 or 4. 



Our ancestors evinced a just hatred of their brutal enemies the 

 Danes, in supposing the nauseous, fetid and noxious plant be- 

 fore us to have sprung from their blood. Its qualities are vio- 

 lently purgative, sometimes emetic ; yet a rob of the fruit is 

 said to have been taken with safety, as far as an ounce. The fo- 

 liage is not eaten by cattle, nor will moles come where these 

 leaves, or those of the following species, are laid, 



2. S. nigra. Common Elder. 



Cymes with five main branches. Stipulas obsolete. Leaflets 

 ovate. Stem arboreous. 



S. nigra. Linn. Sp. PL 385. Wlllcl v. 1. 1495. H. Br. 336. Engl. 



Bat. V. 7. t. 476. Woodv. Med. Bot. t. 78. Hook. Scot, 96. Fl. 



Dan. t.545. Ehrh.Pl.Of. 123. 

 S. n. 670. Hall. Hist. v. 1. 298. 

 Sambucus. Raii Si/n. 46 1 . Ger. Em. 1 422. /. Matth. Valgr. v. 2. 



606. /. (erroneously marked montana.) Camer. Epit. 975. f. 



Fuchs. Hist. 64./. Ic. 37./. Diiham. Arh. v. 2. t. (jb. 

 /3. S. fructu albo. Ger. Em. 1422./ 

 S. acinis albis, Raii Sijn. 461. 



y. S. laciniatis foliis. Ger. Em. 1422./ Loh. Ic. v.2. 164./ 

 S. laciniato folio. Bank. Pin. 45G. Raii Stjn. 461. 



In hedges, coppices, and woods, common ; the varieties rare, ex- 

 cept in gardens. 



A small tree. Jinie. 



AStem much and irregularly, though always opj^ositely, branched, 

 of quick growth ; brauclirs, after a year's growth, clothed with 

 smooth grey bark, and filled witii a light si)ongy pitli. Leaflets 

 deep green, smooth, usually 2 i)air, with an odd one. Ci/mcs 

 large, smooth, of numerous croam-coloured//o//t';\s',with a sweet, 

 but taint smell ; some in each cyme sessile. Berries globular, 

 purplish-black ; their stalks reddish. 



It may be observed tliat our uncertain summer is established by the 

 time the Elder is in full flower, and entirely gone when its berries 

 are ripe. These berries make a useful and agreeable rob, of a 

 blightly purgative quality, and very good for catarrhs, sore 



