HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY 



Sambucus: Latin name perhaps from the Greek for an 



ancient musical instrument. 

 Canadensis: Latin for Canadian. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: damp thickets. 



THE SHRUB: erect, four to eight feet high, branched; the 

 stem smooth and woody. 



THE LEAVES: opposite; pinnately divided, the leaflets 

 five to eleven, but usually seven; two to five inches long; 

 ovate to oval; acute at the apex; sharply serrate; sometimes 

 with short, soft hairs beneath. 



THE FLOWERS: small, funnel-shaped, in flat-topped, loose 

 cymes. 



THE FRUIT: a purple-black drupe. 



A very decorative shrub and one that holds possibilities 

 for the kitchen cupboard and for the medicine chest. 

 Unfortunately its sensitive leaves wilt almost immediately 

 after the stem has been cut and do not revive in water. 

 The shrub is as graceful when filled with the large drooping 

 clusters of creamy-white flowers as later when its berries, 

 purple-black, hang at the ends of the branches, clothed 

 so thickly with their dark green compound leaves. These 

 berries are but one of the useful parts of the plant. Not 

 good to eat raw, they make delicious wine and even better 

 jelly, as Nantucket people can testify. In medicine, prac- 

 tically the whole plant is utilized, or at least used to be. 

 From the flowers and berries and inner bark was made a 

 tonic; while the outer bark compounded with lard com- 

 posed a soothing ointment for burns and scalds. 



Five other members of the Honeysuckle Family have 

 been reported. 



361 



