CAPRIFOLIACEiE. 353 



a yellowish or brownish colour externally, whitish within. When dry, it is 

 brittle and readily pulverized. The odour is nauseous, and the taste bitter 

 and unpleasant. Its active principles are given up both to water and alco- 

 hol and are retained in the extract. No analysis has been made of it. 



Medical Properties. — It is a mild cathartic and sometimes operates as an 

 emetic, especially when the fresh root is given, or when the dried root is ad- 

 ministered in large doses. The extract, which is the best mode of exhibiting 

 it, purges in doses of from ten to fifteen grains. Five pounds of the root are 

 said to afford two pounds of extract. The dose of the powder is a scruple 

 to half a drachm. It may be used in all cases where it is wished to act 

 gently on the bowels, either alone or in combination with calomel. Rafi- 

 nesque states that the leaves are diaphoretic. 



The hard seeds, according to Dr. Muhlenberg, have been used as a substi- 

 tute for coffee, and when properly prepared are said to be a very excellent 

 one. There is another native species peculiar to the Southern States, with 

 narrower leaves, T. angustifolium, which possesses the same qualities as 

 the above, and was perhaps used medicinally before the other, as Plukenet 

 received it under the name of Dr. Tinkers weed, derived from the empiric 

 who first brought it into notice. 



Sambucus. — Linn. 

 Limb of the calyx small, 5-cleft. Corolla rotate or urceolate, 5-cleft, segments obtuse. 

 Stamens 5. Fruit baccate, pulpy, subglobose, 3-seeded. Styles 3. 



Shrubs or small trees with opposite leaves, which are simply or doubly 

 pseudo-pinnate, in a few species bi-stipulate, in most with two glands at the 

 base of each pair of leaflets. Flowers in compound, fastigiate cymes of a 

 white or reddish colour. 



S. nigra, Linn. — Cymes five-parted. Leaves pinnate ; leaflets ovate, serrated. Stem 

 arborescent. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 395 ; Woodville, iii. 596 ; Stephenson and Churchill, ii. 

 79 ; Lindley, Fl. Med. 446. 



Common Names. — Common Elder ; English Elder ; Bourtree. 



Foreign Names. — Sureau, Fr.; Sambuco, It.; Gemeiner Hohlunder, Ger. 



Description. — Stem much and irregularly though always oppositely-branched; younger 

 branches smooth, containing much light spongy pith. Leaves long, composed of two 

 pair and an odd terminal leaflet, of a shining green colour, acuminated, serrated, and 

 smooth. The flowers are numerous, crearn-coloured, and form large cymes, which are 

 quinque-partite; the calyx is persistent, 5-cleft; the corolla rotate, also 5-cleft, the segments 

 being obtuse and somewhat reflexed. The stamens are five, subulate, as long as the corolla, 

 and furnished with roundish, cordate, yellow anthers. The ovary is ovate, supporting three 

 obtuse stigmas. The fruit is a globular berry, of a purplish-black colour on a reddish footstalk. 



This species of Eider is indigenous to many parts of Europe, growing in 

 the same situations as those in which our native kind is found. The parts 

 used in medicine are the inner bark, which is greenish-white, of but little 

 odour and a sweetish mucilaginous taste; the flowers, which have an oppres- 

 sive sickly odour ; and the berries, which are inodorous, of a sweet taste, 

 and yield a purple juice, which is a delicate test for alkalies and acids. The 

 bark does not appear to have been analyzed, but the flowers, according to 

 Eliason (Pereira,\\. 473), contain a Volatile oil, Acrid resin, Tannin, Extrac- 

 tive, &c. ; the berries contain Malic and a little Citric acids, Sugar, Pectin, 

 and Colouring matter. 



Medical Properties. — The inner bark of the Elder was used by the ancients 

 as an aperient and deobstruent, and has also been praised for these properties 

 by Boerhaave and Sydenham, especially in the treatment of dropsies', and is 



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