Book I. 



ELDER, GOOSEBERRY. 



731 



4622. Varieties. Those most esteemed for their fruit are the following, viz. 



Red barberry without stones ; which has 

 an asrresable flavor when full ripe. It 

 Is only found without stones when the 

 plant has attained considerable age, 

 and is on a poor soil. 



White barberry. (Poit. it Turp, Fr. 

 t.51.) 



Black sweet ; which is the tenderest of 

 them, and should be planted in a warm 

 situation. 



Common red with stones. (Diiliam. i p. 

 152. et tab ) This is planted more for 

 ornament than use, on accoimt of it* 

 beautiful red berries. 

 Purple-fruited. (Poit. et Turp.Fr. t. 59. 



462-3. Propagation. " All the varieties are propagated commonly by suckers, also by cuttings and layers 

 of the young branches, and occasionally by grafting j the common red sort is also raised by seed; each of 

 - which methods of propagation may be performed in the spring j that by suckers and layers may be effected 

 also in autumfr." 



4G24. Soil and final planting. The barberry prefers a light dry soil. One or two plants may be planted 

 in a complete orchard, and trained as standards ; but where the shrubbery is the site, it may be allowed 

 to grow as a bush or shrub. " According to the nature of the ground, plant either at any time from a.u- 

 tumn to spring, or only in the spring ; the plants may be already furnished with a head pretty well ad- 

 vanced, if thought proper ; allow them square distances of frrm fifteen to thirty feet." 



4625. Mode of bearing and pruning. " The barberry produces its fruit at the sides of the branches 

 in small loose bunches : it bears both on young and old wood, chiefly toward the extremities. The 

 branches should not be shortened, except the design be to force out new wood ; permit the head to extend 

 freely ; and give only occasional pruning, to keep it in a pretty round form, open in the middle ; cutting 

 out weak, luxuriant, crossing, superfluous, and decayed branches ; reduce also long ramblers, and trim 

 up low stragglers, also lateral shoots on the stem, and eradicate all root-suckers." 



4626. Taking the crop. " As a proportion of the berries ripen in the course of September, they will 

 afford occasional gatherings for present use; and as they will be wholly ripe in October, all that are 

 wanted for domestic supply should be then pulled ; always pick them in bunches." {Abercrombie.) 



SuBSECT. 3. Elder. — Sambucus nigra, la. (^Eng. Bot. 476.) Pent. Trig. L. and. Caj)ri- 

 folece, J. Sureau, Fr. ; Holhinderbaum, Ger. ; and Sambiico, Ital. 



4627. The common elder is a bushy tree of twelve or sixteen feet in height, much 

 branched, and covered with a smooth grey bark, becoming rough on old stems. The 

 leaves are imequally pinnate. The flowers appear in terminating cymes, and are suc- 

 ceeded by globular blackish-purple berries, mawkishly sv/eet. It flowers in May, and 

 the berries ripen in July. The whole plant has a narcotic smell, and it is not prudent, 

 we are told, to sleep under its shade. It is a native of Britain, and many other parts of 

 Europe, and of Africa, Japan, &c. It is common in damp woods and hedges, and is 

 sometimes introduced in cottage gardens aud plantations for the fruit, and in forest 

 plantations, exposed to the sea air, as a nurse plant. 



4628. Use. The fruit is in demand in many places, but especially in London and 

 the principal English towns, for making elder wine of the expressed juice ; a powerful, 

 warming, and enlivening article for the cottager. The tree, professor Martyn observes, 

 is a whole magazine of physic to rustic practitioners, nor is it quite neglected by more 

 regular ones. An excellent healing ointment is made of the green inner bark, which is 

 also purgative in moderate, and diuretic in small doses. A decoction of the flowers pro- 

 motes expectoration and perspiration, and they give a peculiar flavor to vinegar. The 

 flowers are reported to be fatal to turkeys, and the berries to poultry in general. No 

 quadruped will eat the leaves of this tree ; notwithstanding it has its own phalcsna and 

 aphis. The wood is used by the turner and mathematical instrument m^aker ; and is made 

 into skewers for butchers, tops, angling rods, and needles for weaving nets. 



4629. Varieties. Miller mentions several, but those cultivated for their fruit are 

 chiefly the white and black. The scarlet and green berried may also be used like the 

 black, and are very ornamental trees in the shrubbery. 



4530. Site and soil. " As the tree v/ill grow any where, either in open or shady situations, it may be 

 planted in any out-ground or waste spot, in single standards or in rows, to assist in forming boundary 

 fences. Trees planted in the hedge order, if suffered to grow up untrimraed, will produce abundance of 

 berries for use." 



4531. Propagation and rearing. " The elder is raised by cuttings of the young shoots in the spring, 

 and by seed in the autumn. Select for cuttings some strong young shoots of last summer, cut into lengths 

 of one foot, and thence to three feet or more : these may be planted either where it is intended the plants 

 should remain, or in a nursery for a year's growth. Insert them from six to fifteen inches into the 

 ground, according to their length ; they will soon strike root; and will shoot strongly at top the same 

 year. Train those designed for standards with a single stem from three to five feet high ; and those 

 for hedges, with branches out from the bottom. To raise this tree from seed : sow in autumn, October, 

 or November, or later in mild weather, or soon irl the spring, either for a hedge, in drills, where the 

 plants are to remain ; or in a bed or border for planting out when of one or two years' growth." 



4632. Final planting. "Standards maybe planted from ten to twenty feet apart. They should be al- 

 lowed to shoot out above to form a branchy head, nearly in their natural order : in which they will soon 

 become plentiful bearers. For hedge-planting, insert cuttings or year-old plants into the sides or tops of 

 banks or ditches, or other suitable boundary lines, a foot asunder. Permit them to branch out from the 

 bottom ; and where they are designed for full fruiting, merely cut in the sides a little regular below, 

 leaving them to run up above in branchy growth, for producing large crops of berries." 



4633. Taking the crop. " The berries ripen in perfection for the purpose of making wine, about the 

 middle and end of September, and in October, and should then be gathered in bunches." {Abercrombie.) 



SuBSECT. 4. Gooseberry. — Ribes Grossularia, and R. Uva-crispa, L. ( Eng. Bot. 

 1292. 2057.) Pent. Monog. L. and Cacti, J. Groseille a maquereau, Fr. ; Stachel- 

 beerstrauch, Ger. ; and Uva-spino, Ital. 



4634. The gooseberry in YiQdxnont, where it is found wild, and the berries eatable, 

 but astringent and neglected, is called griselie. Some derive our name gooseberry from 

 gorseberry, or the resemblance of the bush to gorse ; others, as Professor Martyn, from 

 its being used as a savice with young or green geese. Gerrard says, it is called feaberry 

 (feverberry) in Cheshire , and it has the same name in Lancashire and Yorkshire. In 



