•GUELDER ROSE. 257 



cularly in the months of May and June, 

 when they exhibit themselves on the glitter- 

 ing green foliage, forming a most agreeable 

 picture. 



Gerard, who has left us engravings of this 

 neutral flowering shrub, calls it Sambucws 

 Rosea, the Rose Elder. This excellent author 

 says, " The Sambucus palustris, the water 

 elder, groweth by running streames and water- 

 courses, and in hedges, by moist ditch sides. 

 The rose elder groweth in gardens, and the 

 flowers are there doubled, by art, as it is 

 thought." We learn from this account that 

 it was not then, 1596, considered either rare 

 or new. He says further, " In my garden 

 there groweth not any fruit vpon this tree, 

 nor in any other place, whereof as yet I 

 haue any vnderstanding or knowledge;" to 

 which he adds, " it is an hedge-tree ; the 

 Dutch call it Gheldersche Roose, in English 

 Gelders Rose, and Rose Elder." Thus it 

 appears we borrowed the inelegant name of 

 Guelder Rose from the Dutch, to whom we 

 would have it returned ; being better pleased 

 with the appellation of snowball, which, its 

 extreme whiteness and globular form resem- 

 ble. This name is also conformable to the 

 Schneeball of the Germans, and Boule de Neige 

 of the French. 

 vol. i. s 



