H < >NEYSUCKLE FAMILY. 



471 



Flowers small, white, in a terminal compound cyme, jointed with 

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

 5-lobed. Ovary 3 to 5-celled; style short; stigmas 3 to 6; ovules 

 solitary, suspended from the summit of each cell. Fruit small 

 berry-like drupes, with cartilaginous 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. glauca. 



Flowers in a thyrsoid panicle; berry scarlet or blue, without bloom; winter 

 buds large, the scales broad, ^ to % in. long: var. callicarpa of 



2. S. racemosa. 



1. S. glauca Nutt. Bushy or arborescent, 6 to 15 ft. high, the 

 largest specimens tree-like and with a trunk 5 to 9 in. in diameter; 

 bark dark and finely Assured; leaves coriaceous, glabrous; leaflets 5 to 

 7, lanceolate, ovate or obovate, mostly abruptly * acuminate, serrate 

 except at the acuminate apex, 1 to 3 in. long; inflorescence 5-rayed, 

 each ray again 1 to 3 times 5-rayed, forming a flat-topped cyme, 3 to 

 fi in. broad; flowers white. 3£ lines broad; fruit blue beneath the 

 white bloom. 



Common in open woods or canons of the lower hill country or at 

 middle altitudes, or along stream-banks in the valleys: Coast Ranges; 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys; Sierra Nevada. Fl. May to 

 Aug. Fr. Aug. -Sept. The berries are used in cookery. 



2. S. racemosa L. var. callicarpa. Low, or arborescent and 

 20 ft. high; leaflets mostly obovate or oblong, commonly acuminate, 

 sharply serrate to the very apex, glabrous above, pubescent with 

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

 paniculate, about '2\ in. long, ovate in outline, the axis continued and 

 sending off 7 or 8 lateral primary branches, which are once or tw T ice 

 di- or tri-chotomous; flowers dull white, drying blackish; berries 

 scarlet or black without bloom. — (S. callicarpa Greene). 



Marin Co. Feb. -Apr. Scales of the winter buds obovate or 

 roundish, \ to f in. long. The shrub bearing black berries has 

 been described by Greene as S. maritima, — "Bare or local shrub 

 of the Bay shore at Shell Mound.'* 



2. SYMPHORICARPOS Dill. 

 Low and branching bushes with small short-petioled simple leaves 

 and scaly leaf-buds. Flowers bi brae teol ate, 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 o-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 sev- 

 eral 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. racemosu*. 



Plants low, about 1 ft. high: leaves mostlv \^ in. long, commonly entire . . 



2. 8. mollis. 



