HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY 



swollen at base, the two coming together almost clasp the stem. 

 Leaflets often have stipels. 



Flowers. — June to August. Perfect, cream-white, star-like, 

 three-eighths of an inch across, turning brown in drying, borne 

 in flat, spreading, compound cymes five to eight inches across. 

 Odor not unpleasant. 



Calyx. — Adnate to the ovary; five-cleft; lobes minute, acute, 

 white with reddish tips. 



Corolla. — Cream-white, with small, short tube and flat border, 

 five to seven-lobed ; lobes rounded, greatly reflexed. 



Stamens. — Five, inserted on the corolla and alternate with its 

 lobes, exserted ; filaments slender, white ; anthers pale yellow, 

 two-celled. 



Pistil. — Ovary inferior, three to five-celled, one ovule in each 

 cell ; style three to five-lobed. 



Fruit. — Berry-like juicy drupe, borne in broad flat cymes, dark 

 purple, size of small pea, crowned with the remnant of the calyx, 

 containing three to five nutlets. Flesh crimson with crimson 

 juice ; taste pleasant. 



An elder or two 

 Foamed over with blossoms white as spray. 



— James Russell Lowell. 



An infusion of the juice of the berry of the Common Elder is a deli- 

 cate test for acids and alkalies. An infusion of the bruised leaves is used by 

 gardeners to expel insects from vines. A wholesome sudorific tea is made of 

 the flowers. The abundant pith is the best substance for the pith-balls used 

 in electrical experiments ; and the hollow shoots are in great use with boys 

 for pop-guns and fifes. 



— George B. Emerson. 



To one who in the ripening days of August fares through uncared for 

 country roads, few bushes have more charm than the Elder. In every fence 

 corner, bordering the tumbling stone walls, and in umbrageous clumps by 

 the roadside, stand these spreading shrubs, with dull green foliage and 

 heavy clusters of small purple black berries. Not seldom wild vines run 

 riot through the gray clustered stems ; and the clematis, the traveller's joy, 

 tosses the white foam of its airy bloom over the full fruitage. The elderberry 

 crop never fails; huckleberries and blackberries, other children of the wastes 

 may have dried in the droughts of midsummer, but the little elderberries full 

 of crimson juice crowd in close cymes upon every branch. 



— Martha Buckek Flint. 

 264 



