70 FAMILIAR TREES 



Londoner must often notice it brightening the littered 

 back-yards of suburban cottages. It forms, for instance, 

 a characteristic feature about Chiswick and Gunners- 

 bury. Sir J. E. Smith remarks that " our uncertain 

 summer is established by the time the Elder is in full 

 flower, and entirely gone when its berries are ripe." It 

 is, indeed, a peculiarly hardy tree. Careless as to soil, 

 apparently luxuriating in loam, but well at home in 

 gravel, its office seems often to be the over-shadowing 

 of the rubbish-heap of the cottage garden, whilst it 

 absolutely rejoices when the carpenter chooses it as a 

 prop to support his stock of planks. Dyer, the author 

 of " The Fleece," refers to the flowering of the Eider 

 as marking the time for sheep -shearing: 



" If verdant Elder spreads 

 Her silver flowers ; if humble Daisies yield 

 To yellow Crowfoot and luxurious grass, 

 Gay shearing-time approaches." 



Elder flower water, though useful as an eye- lotion, 

 is not to be despised as a perfume. It is, in fact, with 

 lavender-water, our native representative of the otto 

 and eau-de-Cologne of more favoured climes. At the 

 same time the wine obtained from the bright black 

 berries is not only a richly flavoured British wine, but 

 is said to do duty on occasion for the more highly re- 

 puted liquor of Portugal. Certainly Elderberries would 

 furnish as wholesome and palatable a beverage as 

 logwood, with which port wine is said to be fre- 

 quently adulterated. 



These same flowers and fruits, which form some 

 of its chief attractions to the cottager, are the chief 

 drawbacks to the use of the Elder for ornamental 



