172 HONETSUCKLE FAMILT. 



6. VIBUENXJM, ARROW-WOOD, &c. (Ancient Latin name, of un- 

 certain meaning.) Flowers white, or nearly so, in spring or early summer : 

 fruit ripe in autumn. 



§ 1. Flowers all alike, small, and perfect. 

 » Cult, or planted from S. Europe, with evergreen smooth entire leaves. 



V. Tinus, LaureStinus. Not hardy N., but a common house-plant, 

 winter-flowering, or planted out in summer ; leaves oblong ; ft-uit dark purple. 



» * Wild species, some occasional! y planted : leaves deciduous, at least N. 



^- Leaves not lobed nor coarsely toothed, smooth or with some tiiinule scurf: fruit 

 black or with a bluish bloom. 

 ■w- Leaves glossy, finely and evenly serrate witlt very sharp teeth. 

 V. Lentigo, Sheep-berrt. Tree 15° -30° high, common in moist 

 grounds, chieHy N. ; leaves ovate, conspicuously pointed, on long margined 

 petioles ; cyme'broad, sessile ; fruit oval, J' or more long, sweet, eatable. 



V". prunifblium. Black Haw. Dry soil, from Conn, to 111. and S. : 

 hardly so tall as the preceding, with smaller and oval mostly blunt leaves. 

 ++ ++ Leaves entire or with a few wavy or crenate small teeth, thidcish. 

 V. obovatum. Along streams fi'ora Virginia S. : shrub with obovate 

 leaves seldom over 1' long, and small sessile cymes. 



V. nitdum, Withe-rod. Swamps, fi'om New England to TJorida ; with 

 leaves oval, oblong, or almost lanceolate, not glossy ; cyme on a peduncle ; fruit 

 roundish. 



-(- ^- Leaves coarsely toothed, strongly feather-veined, the veins prominently marked, 

 straight anal simple or nearly so : fruit smalt : cyme pedunded. 



V. dent^tum, Akrow-wood (the stems having been used by the Indians 

 to make arrows). Common in wet soil, 5° - 10° high, smooth, with ash-colored 

 bark, pale and broadly ovate evenly shai-p-toothed leaves, on slender petioles, 

 and bright blue fruit. 



V. luolle. Soft A. From Kentucky S., soft-downy, with less sharply 

 toothe(J oval or obovate leaves, on slender petioles, and blue oily fniit. 



V. pubdscens, Downy A. Rocky grounds, N. & W. ; a low and strag- 

 gling shrub, with ovate or oblong and acute or taper-pointed leaves, having 

 rather few coarse teeth, their lower surface and the very short petioles soft-downy ; 

 " fruit dark purple. 



■^ -^ •<- Leaves both coarsely toothed and somewhat 3-lobed, roundish, 3 - 5-ribbed 

 from the base and veiny : cymes slender-pedunded, small : f'uit red. 



V. aeerifdlium, Maple-leaved A. or Dockmackie. Shnib 30-6° 

 high, in rocky woods, with 3-ribbcd and 3-lobed leaves soft-downy beneath, then: 

 pointed lobes diverging ; stamens slender. 



V. paueiflorum. Cold woods, only far N. or on mountains ; with almost 

 smooth leaves 5-ribbed at base and 3-lobed at summit; cyme few-flowered; 

 fruit sour. 



§ 2. Flowers round the margin of the cyme neutral (without stamens or pistils) and 

 ven/ much larger than the fertile ones, Hydrangea-like and showy : petides 

 bearing evident appendages which imitate stipules : fruit red, sour. 



v.. Opulus, Cranberry-tree. Tall and nearly smooth shrub, with gray 

 bark, scaly buds, 3 - 5-ribbed and strongly 3-lobcd leaves, the lobes pointed anil 

 commonly few-toothed, and cymes peduncled. The wild form in low grounds 

 N. & E. ; the juicy acid fruit bright red, used as a substitute for cranbcmes 

 (whence the name of Hioii Guanberky-bish). The long-cultivated fonn 

 from Europe, planted for ornament, under the name of Guelder Rose or 

 Snowball-tree, has most of the flowers of the cyme changed into enlaiged 

 corollas. 



v. lantanoides, HoBBLE-BtiSH (popukr name from the straggling or 

 reclining branches taking root at the end, and forming loops ; the botanical 

 name btecause the leaves resemble the V. LantXna or Wayfarisg-tree of 



