ELDER 177 



figures and describes this, declaring that " the jagged 

 Elder tree groweth like the common Elder in body, 

 branches, shootes, pith, floures, fruit, and stinking smell, 

 and difFereth onely in the fashion of the leaves, which doth 

 so much disguise the tree, and put it out of knowledge, 

 that no man would take it for a kinde of Elder vntill he 

 hath smelt thereunto, which will quickely shew from whence 

 he is descended : for these strange Elder leaues are very 

 much jagged, rent or cut euen vnto the middle rib." 



The flower clusters of the elder are generally five- 

 branched, and consist of very numerous creamy-white, 

 five-lobed flowers. These have an odour that to many 

 persons is very objectionable, and especially when the 

 plants are numerous,' and thickly covered with flowers. 

 To this abundance of blossom succeeds an equal profusion 

 of fruit, small individually, globular, and of a deep purple- 

 black. The stems at this season are often of a deep 

 crimson colour, and this, with the varying tints of the 

 foliage touched by the fiery fingers of Autumn, plus the 

 great mass of luscious-looking berries, results in a rich 

 colour-harmony that is very attractive. The rustic house- 

 wife gathers these berries and prepares from them a sort 

 of wine, that so far as our recollection serves, since we 

 have had no care to renew an acquaintance made many 

 years ago, is a horrible preparation. It is curious that 

 Worlidge, in his Mystery of Husbandry— onr edition is 

 dated 1675 — makes no mention of this, though he greatly 

 commends " Syder " " to lessen that great consumption we 

 make of French wines, which we drink to the enriching 

 of a Foreiner, the impoverishing of our selves, and the 



' The bank where flowering Elders crowd. — Thompson, " Spring." 



12 



