S A M 



S A M 



The annual sorts mav be sown in sprini' in 

 the borders, in patches to remain. 



The roots in the perennial kind^ may be 

 parted in autnmn, or early in the spring, and 

 planted out where they are to remain. 



Cidlure in the tender Shrublij Kinds. — These 

 are easily inereased by cuttings of the young 

 shoots; they should be planted in pots in the 

 spring, and plunged in a hot-bed, where they 

 soon emit roots at bottom and shoots at top, 

 and should be gradually hardened to the full air: 

 but cuttings planted in summer will often strike 

 without the aid of a hot-bed when planted either 

 in pots or in a bed of natural earth, under 

 frames and lights, or covered close with hand- 

 glasses, and shaded from the mid-day sun, beiu'T 

 occasionallv watered. 



The young plants should afterwards be potted 

 of! separately, and managed as other shrubby 

 exotics of the green-house. 



The last sort requires a warm dry green-house 

 in winter, and to be very sparingly watered. See 

 Green-house Plants. 



Some of the sorts are useful as culinary plants, 

 others for the purpose of ornament in the bor- 

 ders, &c. and the tender sorts in green-house 

 collections. 



SAMf^AC. SeejASMiNUM. 



SAMBUCUS, a genus containing hardy de- 

 ciduous trees, shrub and herbaceous peren- 

 nials. 



It belongs to the class and order Penlnndria 

 Tiigijnia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Di/mos(P, 



The characters are : that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed perianth, superior, five-parted, very small, 

 permanent : the corolla onc-petalled, rutate- 

 concave, five-cleft, blunt: segments reflex: 

 the stamina have five awl-shapecf lilaments, the 

 length of the corolla : anthers roundish : the 

 pistdlum is an inferior, ovate, blunt germ : style 

 none ; but instead of it a ventricose s'Jand : stii:- 

 iiias three, blunt: the pericarpium is a roundiiTh 

 one-celled berry : the seeds three, convex on 

 one side, angular on the other. 



The species cultivated are : 1 . S. nigra, Com- 

 mon Elder ; 2. S. racemosa, Red-berried Elder ; 

 3. S. Eliihis, Dwarf Elder; 4. S. Canadensis, 

 Canachan Elder. 



The tirst species grows to a bushy tree twelve 

 or sixteen feet in height, much branched, and 

 covered with a smooth gray bark when younii, 

 which becomes rough on the trunk and older 

 branches : the wood is hard, tough, yellow, 

 polishing almost as well as the box-tree ; the 

 'younger branches containing a very large pro- 

 portion of medullary matter or pith : the leaves 

 o|)posile, unequally pinnate: leaflets commonly 



five, smooth, nearly equal at the base, with very 

 small or no stipules: the cymes terminatinor, 

 dividing into five principal branches, and many 

 small ones : the flowers cream-coloured, with a 

 sweet but faint smell, especially when dried. It 

 is a native of Britain and many other parts of 

 Europe ; also of Africa, Japan, &c., flowering 

 in May and June. 



There are varieties w ith white or green berries, 

 with variegated leaves ; and the Parsley-leaved 

 Elder, which has the leaflets narrower, and cut 

 into several segments, which are again deeply 

 indented on their edges regularly, in form of 

 winged leaves: the stalks are much smaller, and 

 the shoots are short ; the leaves have not so 

 strong an odour, and the berries are a little 

 smaller. 



'I'here are also the Gold-striped-leaved, the 

 Silver -striped -leaved, and the Silver-dusted 

 Elder. 



The second species sends up many shrubby 

 stalks from the root, rising ten or twelve feet 

 high, and dividing into nianv branches, whicii 

 are covered with a brown bark : the leaves are 

 opposite ; the lower generally composed of two 

 pairs of leaflets, terminated by an odd one, 

 shorter and broader than those of the first, and 

 deeply serrate; the upper have frequently but 

 three leaflets ; they are of a pale green colour and 

 pretty smooth : the flowers are of an herbaceous 

 white colour, appearing in April, and some- 

 times succeeded by berries, which are red when 

 ripe. It is a native of Germany, Switzerland, 

 Italy, &c. 



The third has a creeping root : the stems herba- 

 ceous, three feet high, upright, roundish, groov- 

 ed, leafy, somewhat enlarged at the joints, pur- 

 plish, branched above; tiie branches opposite 

 and upright: the leaves opposite, unequally pin- 

 nate, dark green, smoothish : leaflets four to six 

 pairs, ovate-lanceolate, veined, acute, serrate, 

 uuc(jual, and generally glandular at the base, 

 smooth above, downy with a slight roughness 

 underneath, and whiter; the lowermost often 

 lobed : the stipules large, leafy, serrate, some 

 times accompanying a pair of leaflets as well as 

 the whole leaf: the c\'me terminating in three 

 principal branches, and those dividinsr; into many 

 others, hairy and mnny-flowered: all the flowers 

 pedicellcd. It is a native of many parts of Eu- 

 rope. 



It was formerly called Wallwort or Wale- 

 wort, and Danewort, and diflTers from the first 

 sort in being herbaceous, in having a cieepina; 

 root, and narrower leaflets, more numerous, and 

 sometimes lobed. 



There is a variety \\'ith cut leaves in which the 

 roots do not creep so much, nor the •tcHJS rise 

 3 C i 



