WOODBINE TKIBE 97 



are used to flavour vinegar. Elder-flower wine is said also to be very good, 

 and to have a flavour like Frontignac. The French seem to like the odour 

 of these flowers, for they place layers of them in store-rooms between their 

 apples, or pack them in baskets with this fruit, to communicate to it an 

 agreeable scent. In this country the chief use made of the blossoms is 

 in the preparation of a useful and common salve, and in country places they 

 are steeped in boiling water, and thus aff'ord a cosmetic, which we have 

 applied often during our childhood Avith good success, for removing the 

 effects of long exposure to the sun. Few of our native plants have had and 

 still retain more renown for their medicinal virtues than the Elder. Indeed, 

 as Sir J. E. Smith said, this tree is, as it were, a whole magazine of physic 

 to rustic practitioners. Boerhaave is said sometimes to have taken off his 

 hat when he passed the tree, so usefvil did he deem it in the alleviation of 

 human maladies. The early shoots, boiled as asparagus, were supposed 

 greatly to strengthen the vital powers ; the beri'ies and juices of the roots 

 were also prescribed, though with some cautions as to their use, on account 

 of their powerful properties ; and the distilled water, besides making the 

 skin " faire and beautifull," was thought to cure headache. Gerarde praised 

 the Elder highly, as did John Evelyn, who recounted its virtues at some 

 length, though he says he cannot commend its scent, which is noxious to the 

 air, nor has he a word to say in favour of its beauty. "If," he says, "the 

 medicinal properties of the leaves, bark, berries, etc., were thoroughly 

 known, I cannot tell what our countryman could ail for which he might not 

 find a remedy from every hedge, either for sickness or wound. The inner 

 bark of Elder applied to any burning takes out the fire immediately ; that, 

 or in season the buds, boiled in water-gruel for a breakfast, has eff'ected 

 wonders in a fever ; and the decoction is admirable to assuage inflammation. 

 But an extract may be composed of the berries, which is not only greatly 

 efficacious to assist longevity, but is a kind of Catholicon against all infirmi- 

 ties whatever; and of the same berries is made an incomparable spirit, 

 which, drunk by itself or mingled with wine, is not only an excellent drink, 

 but admirable in the dropsy. The ointment made with the young buds and 

 leaves in May, with butter, is most sovereign for aches and shrunk sinews, 

 and the flowers macerated in vinegar are not only of a grateful relish, but 

 good to attenuate and cut raw and gross humours. And less than this could 

 I not (with the leave of the charitable physician) to gratify our poor wood- 

 man." It seems never to have occurred to Evelyn, any more than to modern 

 believers in "infallible specifics," that He who gave life and health was not 

 likely to give also to fallen man an}'' certain preventative against that Death 

 which came upon all men Avhen Adam sinned in Eden. As Milton said — 



' ' Dwelt in herbs and drugs a power 

 To avert man's destined hour ; 

 Learn'd Machaon should have known 

 Doubtless to avert his own." 



Other good writers of those days held similar opinions to Evelyn of the 

 efficacy of the Elder; yet a line in Lyly's "Epilogue," written in Queen 

 Elizabeth's time, would lead to the inference that it was in some disrepute. 



[I.— 13 



