Sambucus — The Elder. 17 



There are several other well-known varieties, but their 

 merits as ornamental shrubs are inferior to those already 

 named. 



kS. canadensis is the well-known common elder of 

 America, found everywhere from Canada to the Gulf 

 States, growing preferably in moist locations, but making 

 itself quite at home in the fence corners and by the road- 

 side, v/herever given a chance to grow. Its pithy stems, 

 well bunched, are from five to ten feet high, having 

 compound leaves with from five to eleven leaflets, mostly 

 smooth and three-parted. The flowers are white, gathered 

 in flat cymes, and succeeded by dark purple or black fruit, 

 which is often used in the manufacture of domestic wine, 

 for which it has especial adaptations, and occasionally for 

 making tarts and pies where more desirable berries are not 

 to be obtained. This species appears to have a wider 

 range southward than most of the members of the tribe. 

 6". racemosa, another American species, runs wild over a 

 large extent of country, having red berries instead of 

 purple, but not differing essentially otherwise from the 

 preceding. 



The value of the elder as a seaside plant can scarcely 

 be overestimated, both as a nurse tree and because of its 

 own merits as very ornamental. Says an English writer : 

 " Isolated specimens of it may be seen far out on the 

 dreary stretches of ever-shifting sand, and looking as 

 healthy and robust as we find them in their favored locality 

 — a damp, shady wood. There is not much beauty, some 

 will say, about the elder, though I hold a different opinion ; 

 but beauty alone, it should be kept in mind, is not what 



