SAMBUCUS PUBENS. RED-BERRIED ELDER. 8/ 



marked the spot. On the battle-field in Worcestershire, in 

 England, where the first conflict occurred between the Royalists 

 and the Parliament, under Cromwell, there is a large quantity 

 which the popular mind supposes to have sprung from the blood 

 shed on that occasion. 



The berries of the common black Elder are believed to be 

 poisonous to birds and poultry. It is at least singular that they 

 seldom seem to touch them, while those of our Red-berried 

 species arc eagerly sought for and greedily devoured. On the 

 cultivated plants, from which our drawing was made, they were 

 all eaten one year, before quite colored; and the next season, 

 the bunch which our artist had before him was only secured 

 by having a gauze net placed over it. 



In our country it grows only on mountains or in high eleva- 

 tions, and it is so essential a part of the scenery that it is soon 

 missed when absent. Pursh, in his Journal of a tour through 

 the Northern States, struck by its absence in the Pokono, 

 quaindy remarks: "Though the country being so very high, I did 

 not observe the Sambiicus pubens common to such places." In 

 its greatest beauty the writer of this has seen it as, in the lan- 

 guage of Whittier, he 



" Looked down the Apalachian peak 

 On Juniata's silver streak " 



beyond the Susquehanna in the mountains of Pennsylvania, 

 where in June it is in full fruit, when the common American 

 Elder is coming into flower; and there the berries remain on for 

 a month or more, till, in the words of the same poet, 



" autumn's rainbow-tinted banner 



Hangs lightly o'er the Susquehanna; " 



the birds perhaps having enough and to spare. In the Rocky 

 Mountains, along Clear-creek Canon, 



" Where the spray of the cataract sparkles on high, 

 Hurrying down to its grave, the sea, 



