The Elders : The Haw and the Button-Bush. 269 



The Eldees (Genus Samhucui). 

 1071. The two principal species of the elder found native in the 

 United States are unimportant shrubs. One of them, the red-ber- 

 ried elder, (S. pubens) has sometimes an arborescent form, and is 

 occasionally, but rarely, found 15 to 18 feet high. The S. glauca of 

 California and Oregon is sometimes of this height, and from six inches 

 to a foot in diameter. The Europeon elder (/S. racemosa and S. nigra) 

 grows to a tree of considerable size at the base, but not high in pro- 

 portion, and the young branches are straight, and ■with a relatively 

 large pith, as in the common elder (S. Canadensis) of the Atlantic 

 States. Its berries are sometimes used in making pies, and their 

 juice in making wine. Of the elders, about ten or twelve species 

 are known, chiefly natives of temperate regions, except one or two 

 found in South Africa and some upon mountains within the tropics. 

 This genus and the following belong to the natural order Caprifo- 



Haw : Sloe: Arkow-Wood (Genus Viburnum). 



1072. Of this genus about eighty species are described, and about 

 a dozen are native in the United States. They are, for the most 

 part, unimportant shrubs, growing in swamps, or damp woods, but 

 some of them preferring a dry situation, and occasionally they be- 

 come small trees. 



1073. The black haw ( F. prunifolium) grows to the height of 20 

 feet, and the V. lentago to an equal size. Both have a wide range 

 towards the north and west, and varieties of the former endure a 

 dry climate quite well, and may help to make up some diversity in 

 the forest culture of the western regions. 



1074. The Vihurnwn opvlus is the " high cranberry," sometimes 

 cultivated for its fruit, or as an ornamental hedge-plant. A garden 

 variety of this species, introduced from Europe, has large showy 

 white flowers, all sterile, and is known as the " snow-ball bush." It is 

 easily propagated by sprouts from the root, and by layers, and has 

 a hard fine-grained wood. 



1075. The Button-Bush (Cephalanthus ocddentalis), of the nat- 

 ural order Rvbiacece, is an unimportant shrub, growing throughout 

 the Northern and Western States and on the Pacific coast. It pre- 

 fers the margins of swamps and a rich soil, and sometimes grows to 

 a small tree, but is too small sized for any useful purpose. The 



