124- THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
are regular, in cymes, and the calyx has five sepals, 
the odd one posterior. 
The stamens are in one whorl, borne upon the 
petals. The fruit is a berry or drupe. The anthers 
dehisce either outwards or laterally. 
The dwarf elder is nauseous and foetid, and has a 
herbaceous stem, rarely exceeding 3 ft. in height; 
the cyme is three-cleft. It was used as an emetic. 
In Kent orchards of Elder have been cultivated for 
their berries. The flowers distilled in water and 
alcohol yield a perfume, Elder flower water, used for 
the toilet. 
The cultivated form of the Guelder Rose with all 
neuter flowers, like those in the ray in the wild form, 
called the Snow Ball, is often planted in shrubberies. 
ELDER (Sambucus nigra). 
Like the Ivy the Elder is one of those common 
plants that everyone knows, and it does not requirea 
botanical knowledge of plants to identify it. The 
number of such plants as education progresses will, it 
is to be hoped, proportionally increase. None the 
less we do not for a moment urge the recognition of 
plants by any other than the scientific method of 
ascertaining their identity by means of a key to the, 
known botanical characteristics, which practice alone 
makes perfect, and which has at the same time the 
effect of developing powers of discrimination, observa- 
tion, of patience and an infinite capacity for taking 
