514 ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 
Engravings. N. Du Ham.,1. t.55.; Eng. Bot., t.476.; the plate of this species in Arb. Brit, 
lst edit., vol. vi.; and our jigs. 930, and 931. 
Spec. Char, $c. Arboreous. Leaves pinnate. 
Leaflets usually 5, smooth, deep green, ovate or & 
oblong-oval, acuminated ; the lower leaves some- 
times trifoliolate. _Cymes with 5 main branches. 
Branches, after a year’s growth, clothed with 
smooth grey bark, and filled with a light spongy 
pith. Flowers cream-coloured, with a sweet but Sy 
faint smell. Berries globular, purplish black. UP A 
Stalks reddish, (Don’s Mill.) A low tree. Eu- fi 
rope, and part of Asia, in hedges, coppices, and 
woods ; and plentiful in Britain, in like situations. i 
Height 20 ft. to 30 ft. Flowers cream-coloured ; 931. S. nigra. 
June. Berries purplish black; ripe in Septem- 
ber. Decaying leaves yellowish green, Naked young wood whitish green. 
Varieties. 
¥ S.n. 2 viréscens Dec. Prod. iv. p.322.; S. viréscens Desf. Arbr. Fr.i. 
p. 348. — Fruit yellowish green. 
* S.n. 3 leucocérpa. — Fruit white. 
¥ S.n. 4 lacinidta; S.laciniata Mill. Dict. No. 2. (Lob. Icon., 2. t. 164, 
g f. 2.; and our fig. 
932); the Parsley- 
leaved Elder; has the 
leaflets cut into fine 
segments. The hand- 
somest of all the va- 
rieties. 
932. S.n, laciniata. 953. S.n. foliis argénteis. 
* S. x. 5 rotundifolia. — Leaves trifoliolate. Leaflets petiolate, roundish, 
serrated. Corymbs few-flowered. Cultivated in the Chelsea Garden. 
* S.n. 6 monstrosa, S. monstrdsa Hort., has the branches. striped. 
Flowers of from 5—15 parts; and with from 5—15 stamens. Stig- 
mas 5—12. Berries irregular. 
¥ S. x. 7 foliis argénteis ( fig. 933.) has the leaves variegated with white, 
and forms a striking and lively-looking plant in a shrubbery. 
# S. x. 8 foliis hiteis has the leaves slightly variegated with yellow. 
The elder is cultivated in some parts of Kent for its fruit, which is much 
in demand for making elder wine. ‘The flowers and bark are much used by 
herbalists ; and the wood of old trunks, being very hard, is used as a substi- 
tute for that of box and dogwood. The young shoots, having large pith, are 
made into pop-guns, and the pith is used by electricians in various experiments. 
The plant, both in Britain and on the Continent, is sometimes used for forming 
hedges, and also as a nurse plant for plantations exposed to the sea breeze. 
In the latter capacity, it has the great advantage of growing rapidly the first 
five or six years, and afterwards of being easily choked by the trees it has 
nursed up. The elder will not thrive except in a good soil, kept somewhat 
moist; and it will not flower and fruit abundantly, unless the situation be 
