CHAPTER LXI: THE VIBURNUMS AND THE 



ELDERS 



Family Caprifoliace.^ 



I. Genus VIBURNUM, A. L. de Juss. 



Small trees with ill-smelling wood, and tough, slender 

 branches. Leaves simple, opposite, ovate, 2 to 4 inches long, 

 with margined petioles. Flowers white, in broad terminal 

 cymes. Fruit a blue, berry-like drupe with flat stone. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Branches slender; winter buds long pointed; petiole mar- 

 gins wavy, broad. {V. Lentago) sheepberry 

 A A. Branches stout; winter buds stout; petiole margins narrow, 

 not wavy. 

 B. Leaves and petioles rusty pubescent. 



(K. rufidulum) rusty nannyberry 

 BB. Leaves and petioles smooth. 



(K. prunijolium) black haw 



Viburnums are related to the elders and belong in the honey- 

 suckle family. They include a multitude of ornamental shrubs, 

 evergreen and deciduous, grown in gardens and shrubberies the 

 world over for their showy flowers and decorative fruits as well 

 as their handsome foliage which often colours brilliantly in the 

 fall. Not all viburnums combine all these desirable horticultural 

 qualities. There are about one hundred species known. They 

 are distributed in the continents of the Northern Hemisphere 

 and extend south to Central America, North Africa and Java. 

 The old-fashioned snowball bush is perhaps the most familiar 

 representative of the genus. The Japanese snowball, wiih much 

 more handsome foliage and flowers, followed by red berries, is 

 rapidly succeeding the other in popularity. 



Sheepberry {Vihurniim Leniago, Linn.) A small, round- 

 headed tree, of many slender, pendulous branches. Twigs 

 pubescent, becoming smooth. Bark brown, broken into thick, 



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