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green leaves of the elder branches, insects 

 will not attach to them. An infusion of these 

 leaves in water is good to sprinkle over rose 

 buds, and other flowers, subject to blights 

 and the devastations of caterpillars. 



The wood of old elder-trees is so hard, 

 and takes so good a polish, that it is often 

 used as a substitute for the box- tree. From 

 its toughness, it is used for tops for fishing 

 rods, needles for weaving nets, butchers' 

 skewers, &c. I find it was used by the Ro- 

 mans to make pipes and trumpets, as Pliny 

 says, " the shepherds were thoroughly per- 

 suaded that the elder-tree, growing in a by- 

 place out of the way, and where the crowing 

 of cocks from any town cannot be heard, 

 makes more shrill pipes and louder trumpets 

 than any other/' 



