HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY. 39.") 



1. SAMBUCUS L. Elder. 

 Shrubs or small trees with odd-pinnate leaves and serrate leaflets. Flowers 

 small, white, in cvnies collected in a terminal compound cluster, jointed with 

 their pedicels. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla regular, rotate, deeply 5-lobed. 

 Ovary 3 to 5-celled; style short; stigmas 3 to 5; ovules solitary, suspended 

 from' the summit of each cell. Fruit small berry dike drupes, with cartilag 

 inous nutlets. (Greek sambuke, a musical instrument, said to have been 

 made of Elder wood.) 



Flowers in a flat cyme; berry blue with a bloom; winter buds very small 1. .S". glutted. 



Flowers in a thyrsoid panicle; berry scarlet or bine, without bloom; winter buds large, 

 the scales broad, \\ to Y in. long 2. S. racemosa. 



1. S. glauca Nutt. Blue Elderberry. Bushy or arborescent, 6 to 25 

 ft. high; leaves compound with 5 to 7 leaflets; leaflets coriaceous, glabrous, 

 ovate to oblongdanceolate, serrate except at the abruptly acuminate apex, 1 

 to 4 in. long; flowers 2% to 3% lines broad, aggregated in a terminal flat- 

 topped cluster 2 to 6 in. broad, consisting of one to several 5-rayed cymes; 

 berries 2 lines in diameter, blue beneath the white bloom. 



Open woods or canons of the lower hill country or at middle altitudes, or 

 along stream-banks in the valleys: Coast Eanges; Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 valleys; Sierra Nevada. Fl. May to Aug. Fr. Aug.-Sept. The berries are 

 used in cookery. The straight shoots furnished arrow shafts for the Indians. 



2. S. racemosa L. var. callicarpa Jepson. Red Elderberry. Low or 

 arborescent and 20 ft. high; leaflets thinnish, mostly obovate or oblong, com- 

 monly acuminate, sharply serrate to the very apex, glabrous above, pubescent 

 with short appressed hairs beneath, 2 to 7 in. long; inflorescence thrysoid- 

 paniculate, ovate in outline, 2% to 3 in. high; berries scarlet or black without 

 bloom, 2 lines broad; fruiting clusters 2 to 5 in. across, very showy. 



Pescadero Creek; Berkeley Hills; Marin Co. and northward along the coast 

 to Mendocino. Apr. 



2. SYMPHORICARPOS L. 



Low and branching bushes with small short-petioled simple leaves and scaly 

 leaf-buds. Flowers bibracteolate, white or rosy-tinged, in close short spikes 

 or clusters. Calyx with a globular tube and 4 or 5-toothed limb ; limb short, 

 persistent. Corolla regular, open-campanulate or tubular-funnelform, 4 or 

 5-lobed, the stamens inserted on its throat, in ours included. Ovary 4-celled, 

 each of the 2 lateral cells with a single fertile ovule, the two median cells 

 containing several ovules, none of which develop. Fruit a white berry with 

 bony seeds. (Greek sumphoreo, to bear together, and karpos, fruit, the berries 

 in close clusters.) 



Plants 3 or 4 ft. high; leaves mostly 1 in. long, entire or lobed 1. 5". raccmostts. 



Plants low, about 1 ft. high; leaves mostly ^ in. long, commonly entire 2. i". mollis. 



1. S. racemosus Michx. Sxow Berry. Erect or spreading, with slender 

 branches, commonly 3 to 4 ft. high; leaves round-oval to ovate or oblong, 

 entire or on the same branchlet sinuately few-toothed or saliently lobed, 

 glabrous or the lower surface pubescent, commonly 1 (less commonly as much 

 as 2) in. long, short-petioled; calyx-lobes ciliate; corolla pinkish, 2 lines long, 

 5-lobed above the middle, densely villous-hirsute within; berry globose, 4 to 6 

 lines in diameter; pulp snowy, nearly tasteless. 



Very common throughout California in the hill country. Berries said to 

 poison children. 



2. S. mollis Nutt. Low diffuse shrub about 1 ft. high, of somewhat 



