236 MOW TO KNOW WILD FHUtTS 



By the roadside and in waste places, the Black 

 Nightshade occasionally appears. It is a rather 

 low spreading annual. 



AMERICAN ELDER. SWEET ELDER 



Sambucus Canadensis Honeysuckle Family 



Fruit. — Large, full, flat, drooping clusters of 

 purplish or almost black drupes grow at the ends 

 of the branches. Usually, five small nutlets and 

 purplish juice are the contents of each fruit. 

 The calyx teeth and stigma are visible at the 

 summit. August, September. 



Leaves. — The compound leaves are opposite. 

 Their five to eleven leaflets grow on short stems, 

 and are oblong or ovate. They are coarsely and 

 sharply toothed, the teeth sometimes hooked. 

 The under surface is lighter than the upper, and 

 hairy. The tip is acute and the base rounded, 

 acute, or heart-shaped. 



Floivers. — The small, whitish, fragrant flowers 

 grow in a flat compound cyme. 



In July, this blossoming shrub delights both 

 the sense of sight and that of smell as one passes 

 along the roadway bordered by it. In the fall. 



