344 SNOWBERRY : ELDER 



flowers axillary in leafy racemes ; berries 

 white. 



Symphoricarpos racemosus, Mchx. Snowberry. Strag- 

 gling shrub, often planted in hedgerows and shrubberies. 



Flowers small, homogamous, with honey in the tube ; 

 sub-sessile in opposite pairs; grouped in terminal and 

 axillary racemose bunches of two or three to half-a-dozen 

 or more, each subtended by about two minute bracteoles. 

 Calyx-limb 5-toothed. Corolla rosy, of spongy texture, 

 campanulate, about 56 mm. long, cut half-way into five 

 obtuse lobes ; throat hairy, tube filled with honey. 

 Stamens 5, included; filaments short, inserted high up 

 the tube, as is also the glabrous style; stigma dilated. 

 Ovary 4-celled, ovoid, with abortive ovules in two of the 

 cells. One ovule in each of the others. Fruit white, pulpy, 

 globoid, two-celled by abortion ; hanging on the bush far 

 into the winter. Seed reniform and smaller than its cell. 



tt Corolla white, not bell-shaped ; stamens more 

 or less exserted; flowers in much-branched 

 cymes ; berries not white. 



Ovary xoitli 3 sessile stigmas; fruit a dru- 

 paceous berry, black; leaves pinnate. Corolla 

 rotate. 



Sambiicus nigra, L. Elder (Fig. 140). Shrub or 

 small tree, with opposite pinnate leaves. Flowers small, 

 in large, flat, terminal, erect, much-branched and long- 

 stalked corjmiboid cymes; homogamous, devoid of honey, 

 with strong peculiar odour. Corolla rotate, yellowish- 

 or cream-white. Stamens 5, alternating with the corolla- 

 lobes. Pollen ellipsoid-fusiform, smooth, with 3 furrows. 

 Ovary superior, 3-chambered ; style short ; stigmas 3. 

 Berries globoid, about as large as a small pea, shining 

 black. 



