200 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



A tree, frequently 20 feet high, at other times merely a shrub, 

 with rough, somewhat corky, yellowish-grey bark ; the twigs 

 angular, with shining cinereous bark, with numerous lenticels. 

 Leaves glabrous ; leaflets 1 to 3 inches long. Cymes flat, on 

 long stalks, 3 to 7 inches across, with about 5 elongated branches 

 springing from the same point, which are again repeatedly 

 dichotomously branched at the apex. Flowers cream - white, 

 ^ inch across. Corolla 5-cleft ; segments suborbicular, with deflexed 

 margins. Stamens spreading ; anthers yellow. Berries about 

 the size of buck-shot, black, very juicy. Bark of the shoots of the 

 year green. Leaflets shining, bright-green, paler beneath. Bays 

 of the cyme purple in autumn. 



Common Elder. 



French, SureoAi Noir. German, Schwarzer Holunder. 



The common Elder is a small tree, familiar to every one from its frequent occur- 

 rence in hedges and about cottages and fai-mhouses. Its ample cymes of delicate cream- 

 coloured flowers make a fine show in June, and its purplish-black clusters of berries in 

 September. Sir J. E. Smith says that our uncertain summer is fully established by the 

 time the Elder is in full flower, and entirely gone when its berries are ripe. The berries 

 of the Elder are much valued in country districts, where a kind of wine is made from 

 them, which is highly esteemed as a winter cordial drink : they are also boiled down with 

 sugar into a sort of rob, which has a rustic reputation for colds and soi'e throats. In 

 olden times there was no plant that had a greater medical reputation than the Elder. 

 The inner bark was employed by the village doctor as a cathartic, and the flowers as a 

 fomentation, or made into ointment. Boerhaave is said to have held the tree in such 

 estimation that he never passed one without taking ofi" his hat in its honour. An oil, 

 obtained by distilling the flowers, is still retained in some Pharmacopoeias ; and another, 

 called green oil, is prepared by boiling the leaves in rape-oil, and is sometimes used as a 

 liniment. The flowers, distilled with water and alcohol, yield a perfumed liquid known 

 as elder-flower water, and is in requisition for the toilet and in confectionery. Loudon 

 tells us that the ancients used the fruit of the Elder, in common with that of the mul- 

 berry, to stain the statue of Jupiter red, on the celebration of the fete of that god. They 

 also employed the berries to dye the hair of their heads black. The wood of the Elder, 

 •when it becomes old, is very hard and close-grained, and susceptible of a high polish; 

 but the interior of the stem is flUed with pith. The shoots are applied to various pur- 

 poses on account of this circumstance, the pith being easily removed, leaving a hollow 

 tube. From time immemorial children have made popguns, whistles, and miniature 

 muskets of these elder-branches, Pliny himself taking notice of the fact. This pith, 

 being exceedingly light, is cut into balls, which are used for delicate toys and electrical 

 experiments. If a twig of Elder be partially cut, then cautiously broken, and the 

 divided portions carefully drawn asunder, the spiral vessels will be very apparent, and 

 their structure easily studied. 



In Kent there are fields or orchards entirely of Elder-trees, which are cultivated 

 for the sake of their fruit, which is brought regularly to market and sold for the pur- 

 pose of making wine : the price is from 4s. to 6s. a bushel. These berries are said not 

 only to "be used for legitimately making British wine, but to a gi'eat extent in the 

 adulteration of foreign wines, especially port ; and we have heard of the confessions of 



