SAMBUCUS NIGRA. ORD. XXXVI Dumose. 597 
Sp. Ch. S. cymis quinquepartitis, foliis pinnatis, caule arboreo. 
THE root is woody, from which issues a shrubby stem often to 
the height of twelve or sixteen feet: it is much branched towards 
the top, and covered with a rough whitish bark: the wood is hard, 
tough, and contains in the centre a large proportion of medullary 
matter, or pith: the leaves are pinnated, consisting of two or 
three pair of pinnz or leafits, with an odd one at the end: they 
are oval, veined, smooth, deeply serrated, and of a deep green 
colour: the flowers are small, white, and produced in jncye flat 
umbels or clusters: the calyx is permanent, placed above the 
‘germen, and divided into five segments: the corolla is mono- 
petalous, wheel-shaped, somewhat convex, and divided into five 
obtuse segments: the filaments are tapering, spreading, equal in 
length to the corolla, and crowned with roundish anther: the 
germen is oval, and furnished with a prominent gland, which 
supplies the place of the styles, and supports three blunt stigmata: 
the fruit is a round succulent berry, of a blackish purple colour, 
and contains three seeds, which are flat on one side, and angular 
on the other. It is a native of Britain, in moist hedges and wabde 
and flowers in May and June. 
This species is the Axra* of the Greek writers, and has been long 
very generally employed for medical purposes. The whole plant 
has an unpleasant narcotic smell, and some authors have reported 
its exhalations to be so noxious as to render it unsafe to sleep 
under its shade.” - The parts of the Sambucus, which are proposed 
* Sambucus, ’Ax Grecis, a Sambuca musico instrumento, quod alii pectida, alit 
Alii ab autore cui nomen Sambyx denominatum 
Raii Hist. p. 1609. 
* The Berries are said to be poisonous to poultry. (Barthol. Hist. anat. 
rarior. Cent. iv. p. 248.) And the flowers to peacocks. Linn. Flor. Suec. p. 79. 
If turneps, cabbages, fruit-trees, or corn, (which are subject to blight from a 
variety of insects) are whipped with the green leaves and branches of Elder, the 
insects will not attack them. Withering. t.c. See Phit. Trans. vol. dei. p. 348. 
oe 
No. 48.—vot, 4. 7™ 
magadin yocant, dicta putatur. 
malunt. Nobis vox incerte originis esse videtur. 
