96 FAMILIAR TREES 



ripe, that of the fruits. Each flower consists of five 

 minute sepals, a short funnel-shaped five-lobed 

 corolla, about a quarter of an inch across, five small 

 stamens projecting beyond the corolla, and a short 

 triple style. As in the Privet, these small flowers are 

 rendered conspicuous by being grouped together ; but 

 the stiff flat corymbs have none of the freedom of 

 form of the panicled clusters of that shrub. 



It is undoubtedly when the leaves turn colour and 

 the insignificant florets have given place to the berries, 

 that the Wayfaring-tree most claims our attention. 

 The lustrously-polished berries are about a third of an 

 inch in diameter, and at an early stage are sHghtly 

 compressed laterally. From a pale green they blush 

 to crimson or the opaque red of coral, mottled, where 

 shaded from the ripening rays of the sun, with a 

 creamy pallor, and finally maturing to a purplish- 

 black, all these tints being often seen in a single 

 cluster. This fruit is thought by some to be not un- 

 pleasant to the taste, though slightly astringent, and 

 it is greedily eaten by birds. It is said to have been - 

 used in Switzerland in making ink, and the old writers 

 describe an elaborate method for making birdlime 

 from the bark of the root. On a dry, chalky soil, 

 however, where some shrubs may refuse to grow, the 

 Wayfaring-tree, in virtue of its autumn leaves and 

 berries, may, perhaps, claim a place in the shrubbery 

 with Yew, Cornel, Spindle-tree, or Elder. 



