30 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



white blossom, revisited in August or September it is 

 bedecked with abundant clusters of ruddy berries, globular 

 in form, and each containing a single seed. These clusters, 

 from their weight, are ordinarily more or less drooping, and 

 vary very greatly in colour, those portions of the bunch 

 that enjoy the full sunlight being much deeper in tint than 

 the rest, so that, alike in collective bunch and in individual 

 berry, we get portions that are a deep crimson, contrasting 

 with others passing in all gradations from this to a clear 

 golden yellow. When rather more than fully ripe the 

 berries become almost black and lose much of their original 

 attractiveness. 



The guelder rose is abundant in most coppices and 

 skirting the margins of the woodlands, and not unfrequently 

 finds a place in the hedgerows, a somewhat moist situation 

 seeming to suit it best. It is really a small tree, attaining 

 a height, maybe, of some twelve feet or so, but of necessity 

 has in the hedgerow to take its share in the general levelling 

 down. 



In the large flower-heads of the wild guelder rose we 

 find two entirely distinct forms : in the centre the blossoms 

 are closely clustered together, individually small, but perfect 

 in structure ; while surrounding these there is a ring of 

 much larger flowers that are reduced to a flat, disk-like, 

 five-lobed corolla, stamen-less, pistil-less. It is this outer 

 ring that is the conspicuous and attractive feature, if not 

 to the botanist, at least to the lover of the quaint and 

 picturesque. The tree is sometimes called the rose-elder ; 

 it was the standard name for it two or three hundred years 

 ago amongst the herbalists, but the name is not a very 

 happy one. If we are content to view the trees at such 



