416 



Sambucus nigra. Abundant everywhere in the county and island, 

 in woods, thickets, copses and hedgerows. Var. /3. Leaflets ternate, 

 orbicular. S. nigra, e. rotundifolia, D. C. Prod. iv. p. 323. By the 

 road-side betwixt St. Lawrence and Niton ; Mr. Wm. Wilson Saun- 

 ders!!! The only tree I have seen of this curious form is the one 

 above mentioned, and which has had the trunk apparently sawn off a 

 few feet from the ground, but has since shot out branches vigorously, 

 though I have not seen flowers. Cuttings planted in a garden at St. 

 John's, near Ryde, preserve the trifoliate and rounded character of 

 the leaves, but have not yet bloomed. I have seen this variety in the 

 Botanic Garden of Trinity College, Dublin, and in that of Mr. Borrer 

 at Henfield, but never saw it wild except in the present instance. 

 Var. y. Berries pale, nearly colourless. A single tree in a field-hedge 

 below Mousehole, near Newchurch, Isle of Wight, November, 1845. 

 Small thickets of scrubby elder and whitethorn constitute the sole 

 ligneous vegetation on Longwood Warren, near Winchester, a tract 

 remarkable for its desolate aspect, and the peculiarity of its floral 

 productions, as I shall show hereafter. 



The elder is one of those British arboreous vegetables which, like 

 the lime and beech, has by some been considered doubtfully indige- 

 nous upon equally insufficient grounds, resulting from the want of 

 careful observation and inquiry. Loudon says (Arbor. Brit. ii. p. 

 1028), "A native of Europe and part of Asia, in hedges, coppices and 

 woods ; plentiful in Britain in like situations, but probably not truly 

 indigenous." Here we have a perfectly gratuitous assumption, un- 

 supported by any reasoning whatever, and directly opposed to the 

 conclusion naturally derivable from the preceding clause of the sen- 

 tence. For if the elder be an acknowledged native of Europe and 

 Asia in hedges, coppices and woods, and plentiful in Britain in like 

 situations, the probability surely is not against, but absolutely in fa- 

 vour of its indigenous origin ; for the perfect parity of condition in 

 which it is found here and abroad leaves no room for any other infe- 

 rence, no space to insert and drive home the wedge of counter argu- 

 ment. Unless, therefore, some reason be advanced to qualify or 

 invalidate the prior clause, which the author has not vouchsafed his 

 readers, the latter has no claim on our attention or belief. The fact 

 is that in the south of England no shrub is more evidently and indis- 

 putably wild than the common elder, associated, as it is, in the most 

 sequestered woods, with the wayfaring tree and the guelder-rose, and 

 indeed more common and universal in its distribution than either of 

 these last, the indigenous claims of which might just as reasonably 



