26 
BOTANICAL INDEX. 
Fig. 93. 
VIBURNUM PR UNIF OLIUM. Linn. 
» 0R this number of the Index, we have selected one of our commonest native ] 
fruits to talk about — the Black Haw of common parlance; and although we j 
do uot remember to have ever seen it under cultivation, it is certainly worth 
a trial and some attention, as it is one of the little gems of fruit much sought 
after in autumn when its shining bluish-black fruit is ripe. But before we 
^ proceed further with the subject, let us take a passing view of the genus of 
plants to which our fruit belongs. Here we have a genus containing about fifty spe- 
cies, nearly all of which are natives of the temperate zone, and contain many of our 
choicest flowering shrubs, such as the snow-ball and cranberry tree of our lawns, 
and the so-called Laurestinus and Viburnum odoratisxirna of our conservatories. But 
none of the fruit-bearing varieties of Viburnums are of any economic value for fruit 
except the Black Haw, at least in a fruit country like ours; yet in Norway and 
Sweden, where choice fruit is scarce, the small red berries of the snow-ball are eaten 
as fresh fruit, and also prepared with honey and flour as a means of subsistence. 
Some of the other fruiting species are V. lentago, (the sheep-berry) — which, however, 
is so closely allied to V. prunifolium that a strong doubt is always expressed of their 
being more than one species, — V. nudum , together with several indefinitely marked 
forms or varieties which have edible but almost tasteless fruit; also, r. molle, the 
Poison Haw of the Southern States, with a blue berry. In regard to V. lentago, Dr. 
