39 6 THE ALDER BUCKTHORN. 



The Alder Buckthorn is fairly common as a shrub or small tree 

 in woods and waste places. It rarely exceeds ten feet in height when 

 fully grown, and in open spaces will bear flowers and Iruit when only 

 two feet high. Its chief distinction is in the unusual form of its 

 leaves, which are attractive in texture and colouring. 



THE BRANCHES . 



The stem and branches are slender, and form long sweeping 

 lines, directed upward and clearly marked ; for they bear but few twigs, and 

 these carry most of the leaves near their extremities. The stem and 

 the older branches are coloured a very dark dull grey, the young 

 shoots pale green, tinged with red on the surface most exposed. By 

 the autumn these shoots have turned to a dull purple. 



THE FLOWER. 



By the end of June the blossom is fully out. The flowers 

 grow on the young shoot from the axil of each leaf, in groups of 

 three or four. The pedicel is about half an inch long, pendent and 

 of a delicate green. On its extremity it carries the tiny blossom 

 made up of five small white petals, finely pointed and united to within 

 a little of their tips by a pale-green cup-shaped calyx, which, seen from 

 a distance, gives to the whole the appearance of a green flower. 



THE BERRIES. 



The berries are usually set singly, or in pairs, in the leaf-axils, 

 where they replace the groups of flowers. At first their colour 

 is pale-yellowish green, but this changes about the middle of August 

 to rose-colour or crimson (the parts most exposed being the first to 



