Viburnum.] caprifoliace^. 231 



gveen, but has not Tieen seen tliere for many years. Near Carisbrooke castle. 

 Between Newport and Carisbrooke castle, Mr. W. D. Snooke. 



A slout bushy plant, 3 or 4 feet high, looking much like seedling trees of the 

 common Elder. Root fleshy and creeping, Sm. Stem rounded, deeply furrowed, 

 filled with a white pith, oppositely branched. Leaves impari-pinnate, with from 

 4 to 6 pairs of lanceolate acute leaflets, sharply and unequally serrated, deep 

 green, a little hairy beneath, very like those of the last, but usually narrower. 

 Stipules leafy, ovate, of one or more pairs of leaflets, various in form, toothed or 

 lobed. Cyme terminal, as broad as the hand, of 3 — 5 principal branches (in my 

 specimens from St. Catherine's uniformly 6, 4 lateral and 1 central), blood-red in 

 fruit. Flowers larger than in the common Elder, white tipped with dark rose-red 

 or purple, of a strong peculiar odour, resembling bruised bitter almonds, mixed 

 with something less agreeable, and to many persons very unpleasant, but to others 

 quite the re\ erse. Segments of the coroWa with an inflexed point. Filaments 

 white, singularly thickened, uneven on their surface ; anthers purple. Styles 3 

 very short obtuse cones, with a slight depression or furrow on each. Berries 

 sparingly produced in general, like those of the common Elder in size and colour, 

 of a bitter mawkish taste, filled with a juice which stains the hands of a deep 

 indigo-blue, and is with difficulty removed by washing. Seeds small, angular. 



Like its congener, S. nigra, the Dwarf Elder seems truly indigenous to the Isle 

 of Wight, the station near Niton being far from any garden or other situation 

 from whence it might have escaped ; its more usual habitats are by roadsides at 

 the entrance to villages and towns, as Mr. Gerard Smith remarked to me. 



The plant is, I understand, sought after by farriers and horse-doctors as a sti- 

 mulant and to improve the coats of horses, which may account for its present 

 scarcity in some localities, as between Chine cottage and Rose cliflF, where a 

 countryman informed me he had formerly seen it in abundance. 



II. Viburnum,* Linn. 



" Calyx-limb 5-cleft. Corolla campanulate or funnel-shaped, 

 5-lobed. Stamens 5. Stigmas S, sessile. jBerr^ inferior, usually 

 1-seeded." — (Leaves simple)." — Br. Fl. 



An extensive genus of hardy ornamental shrubs, chiefly American, of which 

 Europe possesses but three species, one of which is the well-known Laurustinus (V. 

 Tinus, L.) of our gardens. The leaves of the deciduous kinds turn red or purple 

 in autumn, and the fruit of some is eatable. 



1. V. Opulus,\ L. Guelder Rose. Water Elder. Vect. Stink- 

 tree. Leaves 3-lobed rounded or subcordate at base downy 

 beneath, the lobes acuminate coarsely sharply and angularly 

 toothed and serrate, petioles glandular with slender stipuliform 

 appendages, cymes pedunculate fiat radiant, fruit globose (red). 

 Sm. E. Fl. u. p. 107. Br. Fl. 184. Bab. Man. 141. E. B. v. t. 



* The name Viburnum is of doubtful signification, some deriving it from Viere, 

 ' to bind with twigs,' ' to wattle,' and for which purpose the tough flexible shoots of 

 our second species are well adapted ; but 1 am inclined to think it a compound 

 word, synonymous with Viorna, applied by the ancients, it is supposed, to some 

 kind of Clematis, quasi vias ornans, both plants possessing the qualities of flexi- 

 bility, and of ornamenting the highways by which they grow. The coincidence 

 between the French Viorne and the English Wayfaring-tree, to designate the 

 same shrub, hints at a common oiigin for the two Latin names, almost conclusive 

 of the truth of this etymology. 



f Opulus (Opier, Fr.), perhaps from Opulentus, on account of its fine appear- 

 ance when in flower. 



