THE ELDER. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



HE Elder attracts attention at all times of the year. The 

 grey-green tufts of its opening leaves, like the downy 

 silver buds on the goat willow and the first golden 

 celandine, come rather to show that winter is past than 

 as tokens of spring's arrival. In summer its large leaves and strong 

 new shoots are conspicuous in the hedgerows, even before the display 

 of its white heads of blossom. In autumn the shining black berries 

 massed together on crimson stalks, or the pale yellow of the fading 

 leaves, form a fine contrast to the scarlet fruit of the Mountain Ash, 

 Guelder Rose or Hawthorn, and the crimson tints of their foliage. 

 The Elder is a denizen of cottage gardens, where it shares with the 

 holly and the rose-bush, with marigolds, monkshood, snap-dragon and 

 a host of old-world flowers, that power to charm which comes of 

 old association. It provides the cottager with his wine, and is no 

 less a favourite with the children, who for generations past have used 

 the hollowed tubes of its young shoots to supply themselves with 

 whistles and popguns. 



THE FLOWER. 



The male and female organs are contained in the same floret. 

 The flower stem grows from the apex of the shoot, in a line with 

 it, and from this stem radiate the main flower stalks (i.e., a central 

 stalk and two opposite pairs set like a cross), which in their turn divide 



