360 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
at base, beautifully tapering, acuminate, and serrate, smooth 
above, slightly fringed with bent hairs on the margin, and 
sometimes a little hairy on the veins beneath. The flowers, 
which are yellow, are terminal, or in the axils of the upper 
leaves; usually three on a stalk, of which the middle one is 
commonly sessile. 'The seed-vessel is very long, egg-shaped, 
with a long, taper point, crowned with the awl-shaped segments 
of the calyx. A variety occurs with the leaves narrower and 
thicker, much smaller, and constantly acute at base. 
FAMILY XIX. THE ELDER FAMILY. VIBURNEZ. Barruinae. 
Closely allied to the Honeysuckle Family, with which it 
has, until recently, been united, this small family, embracing 
about eighty species, found, generally, in the temperate regions 
of the northern hemisphere, is strikingly distinguished by its 
habit and mode of flowering. Many of the species have beauti- 
ful flowers and foliage, and are favorites in ornamental gardens. 
The snow-ball, so great a favorite in many countries of Europe 
and in this, is a sterile variety of Viburnum dpulus. The fruits 
are, generally, acid or astringent, sometimes purgative. The 
sweet flowers of the common elder, both of Europe and of this 
country, are sudorific, and the European species has been used 
as such from ancient times. They are packed in casks, by the 
French, with fruit, to give it an agreeable odor. Elder-berry 
rob, and wine, have long enjoyed, in England, an apparently 
well deserved reputation. The leaves and inner bark of these 
same elders are offensive, and have emetic and particularly 
purgative qualities in a powerful degree. ‘The fruit of some 
species of Viburnum are austere and astringent; of others, not 
unpleasant to the taste, and capable of forming an article of 
food. The Wayfaring Tree, the Guelder Rose, and the Laurus- 
tinus, all species of Viburnum, are ancient favorites in England 
and other parts of Europe; the latter for the precious property 
of flowering, in warm countries, through the winter. 
