Jmie — The Elder-Tree. 209 



always unknown, but in the north it yields its properties 

 by infusion, and the product, after fermentation, is used 

 as a substitute for champagne, often by very rich people. 

 As is generally the case with substitutes, there is little 

 real relation between the original wine and that which is 

 made to replace it. Elder-flower wine is not champagne, 

 nor any thing like it, but it has great claims to con- 

 sideration on its own merits ; and although no poet has 

 ever sung its praises, they certainly ought to be sung, 

 and not coldly spoken only, as in this pedestrian prose.* 

 The closeness of the relation between taste and perfume 

 is rarely more manifest than in this beverage, for to 

 drink it is to drink perfume, the perfume of an elder- 

 bush in June. I may add that the heaviness in the 

 natural fragrance is maintained in the somnolence which 

 the wine induces, for he who has indulged in it is sure 

 to be overpowered by drowsiness unless he resists with 

 all his might, or counteracts the sleepy drink by some 

 awakening stimulant. 



The elder-tree sometimes grows high enough to be of 

 some importance in the near landscape, and its white 

 corymbs of flowers are visible at a great distance. The 

 way in which these corymbs are carried on the tree is 

 one of its chief beauties, their flat surfaces being in so 

 many different positions, but always in obedience to a 

 regular law of growth ; the foliage, too, is elegant and 

 gracefully borne. 



* Elder-fl jwer wine is at least mentioned in a very well-known 

 Scottish ballad, ' The Laird of Cockpen : ' — 



4 Mistress Jean she was making the elder-flower wine, 

 Now what brings the Laird at sic a like time ? ' 



14 



