100 CAPRIFOLIACE^ 



North America they are, after fermentation, made into a sort of cake by the 

 Indians ; and Sir Joseph Hooker, who found the berries of one species abun- 

 dant on some parts of the Himalaya, says that they are called Nalum by the 

 people there, and are eatable and agreeable. In Switzerland they are used in 

 making ink. The bark of the tree is made into bird-lime, but seems to be 

 inferior for this purpose to that of the holly. Evelyn says that the inner 

 bark is so acrid that it is included by some writers among those plants used 

 in raising blisters on the skin, and it is said that a decoction of the leaves 

 will dye the hair black. The young shoots are very tough ; so much so that 

 the gatherer of the wild nosegay must use a knife in severing the twig and 

 its flowers. They are in some countries used in making baskets, and for the 

 stems of tobacco pipes. In Kent they are often bound around faggots to keep 

 them together. William Howitt has a pleasing poem on this shrub, and thus 

 addresses it : — 



" Wayfaring Tree, what ancient claim 



Hast tliou to that right pleasant name ? 



AVas it that some faint pilgrim came 

 Unhopedly to thee, 



In the brown desert's weary way, 



'Mid toil and thirst's consnming sway, 



And there, as 'neath thy shade he lay, 

 Bless'd the Wayfaring Tree ?" 



Such a name will indeed awaken the imagination to ponder on its origin, 

 and to wonder to what weary wanderer the wayside tree proved so welcome 

 as to win his regard. 



2. Common Guelder Rose {V. dpuliis). — Leaves broad and somewhat 

 heart-shaped, with from three to five pointed and serrated lobes ; flowers in 

 large cymes. Plant perennial. This is not an uncommon tree in the English 

 or Scottish woodlands, being more ornamental to them by the varied 

 autumnal tints of its foliage, and by its glistening berries, than even by its 

 summer flowers. The leaves at this season are of red, purple, and green 

 hues, and we know of no native berries so beautiful as those of the Guelder 

 Kose. They hang in drooping clusters, and are smooth, and clear, and bright 

 as rubies. They remain on the boughs long after the foliage has dropped 

 from them leaf by leaf, and they often contrast most vividly with the silken 

 tufts left by the clematis flower which is winding near them. The shrub 

 bears its blossoms in June and July, These are creamy white, and far 

 inferior in beauty and snow-like hue to those of the Guelder Rose, which 

 adorns the shrubbery, as Cowper says — 



"Throwing up into the darkest gloom 

 Of neighbouring cypress, or more sable yew, 

 Her silver globes, light as the foaming surf 

 That the wind severs from the broken wave." 



This, however, is but a cultivated variety of the woodland shrub. The 

 floM'ers in their wild form are not densely crowded, but form a loose flat 

 cluster, the inner blossoms being small, bell-shaped, and perfect, and the outer 

 ones consisting of a large flat five-lobed corolla, destitute of stamens and 

 pistils. As in the Umbelliferte and the CompositiB large numbers of minute 

 flowers are massed together for the sake of rendering them more noticeable 

 to bees and other honey and pollen-seeking insects, so in elder and Guelder 



