THE ELDER 69 



the leaf and its outline, is equally apparent ; and it 

 needs no great acuteness to perceive that it will 

 require less cellular tissue, and, therefore, less food, to 

 cover this skeleton with a segmented covering than to 

 enclose it between the surfaces of one huge undivided 

 leaf Here, then, we have economy of nutrition, 

 whilst at the same time the arrangement of the 

 leaves secures their free exposure to the necessary 

 light and air, and the greater length of saw-tooth 

 margin secured renders them less inviting to the 

 tender-mouthed cattle. In rendering themselves 

 conspicuous, the small flowers have, by the process 

 of natural selection, shown their practical apprecia- 

 tion of the Belgian motto, "L'union fait la force,'' and 

 whilst in twilight the eye forms some idea of their 

 success when it notices their spectral distinctness in 

 the hedgerow, in a room our noses tell us that they 

 aim mostly at attracting the insects of the dusk. 

 Nearly all white flowers are more strongly scented in 

 the evening. Colour and perfume here go hand in 

 hand. Perhaps, too, the small size and great number 

 of their fruits may stand in distinct relation to the 

 smallness and number of the fruit-eating birds of 

 those northern temperate latitudes in which flat 

 clusters of white flowers, whether " umbels " or 

 " cymes," are most abundant. 



The flowers. of the Elder make their appearance at 

 the end of May or the beginning of June, the fifth of 

 the latter month being said to be the average date by 

 which the trees are fully in bloom in the South of 

 England. Its blossoming may thus be said to mark 

 the beginning of summer, and at this season the 



