A CLUSTER OF BERRIES 143 



charms connected with or said to be worked by the elder, 

 one may approach understanding of the origin of these 

 beliefs when even in these "enlightened" days' it is claimed 

 in Scotland and England that the leaves give out so strong 

 and narcotic an odour or power that it is unsafe to sleep in 

 their shade, and when, in America, the apparently innocent 

 young leaf-buds are declared too much of a risk to put into 

 the mouth. Possessed of such elements of possible dan- 

 ger, it might readily have once been considered its powers 

 of evil were available for charms. The United States 

 Dispensatory remarks (in list of Unofficial Remedies): 

 "The juice of the berries has been used as an alterative 

 in rheumatism, also as a laxative. The inner bark is in large 

 doses emetic. It has been employed in dropsy, epilepsy, 

 and various chronic diseases. The leaves are not without 

 activity and the young leaf -buds are said to be "a violent 

 and even unsafe purgative." The juice, also, of the root 

 has been used in dropsy. There is so great an abundance 

 of citric acid in the scarlet-fruited elder (Sambucus race- 

 mosa rubra), native of the south of Europe and Siberia, 

 that M. Thibier Thibierge of Versailles proposed its use 

 as a source of the commercial supply. Wine is made from 

 both the flowers and berries (of the common black elder) , 

 the former rarely .delicate, declared similar in bouqt^t and 

 flavour to Frontignac. The juice of the berry is used to 

 colour and adulterate other wines, and the berries supposed 

 to improve ale, currant wine and jellies by their addi- 

 tion. Formerly they were made up into vinegars and 

 sauces for meats; the flowers into ointment and elder- 

 flower water (the latter still used in perfumes and medicinal 

 decoctions) ; the tiniest blooms stripped and separated 

 to mix in with and lighten pancakes or muffins, and in 

 France, as packing or filling for certain delicate apples, 

 they still flavour richly and spicily and beautify a 



