ELDER-TREE. 307 



comprehend aught concerning organized living beings, or 

 the beautiful circle of nature, to which my sister has so 

 learnedly referred. I have inhabited my present site for 

 many years ; and the farmer's wife duly sends her blooming 

 dairymaids, with the cowboy, to gather my ripe berries in 

 autumn. My small services are always cheerfully rendered 

 in time of need, and therefore I am in some request. 

 Those who sit down to rest beneath my flowering branches 

 soon forget their sorrows or their weariness ; and he whose 

 granary is troubled with mice, or with moles his garden, 

 comes to me for leaves wherewith to drive them away. A 

 jelly prepared from my fruit is in great repute for colds ; 

 and who has not heard respecting the excellence of elder 

 wine ? Water distilled from my flowers is used as a lotion ; 

 an infusion of my leaves readily destroys such insects as 

 infect delicate plants, they make also a cooling ointment ; 

 and if cabbages and fruit-trees be well rubbed with iny 

 green leaves and branches, no insect will attack them : they 

 are used externally, when dry, as a fomentation to ease pain 



