402 PENTANDRIA. TR1GYNIA. Staphylea. 
Var. 2. Berries white or green. 
Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Shropshire.* 
Var. 3. Laciniata. Leafits jagged. 
Kniph. 8— Ger. 1234. 2— Dod. 845. 2— Lob. Obs. 589. 2— Ger. Em. 1422. 3 
— -J. B. i. a. 549. 1— Park. 208. 3. 
Retzius in his third fasc. believed this to be a distinct species, but in his 
sixth fasc. he abandons this opinion, having found that the seeds unL 
formly produce S. nigra. 
Parsley-leaved Elder. (Near Bury, Suffolk. Mr. Woodward. E.) In 
hedges near Manchester, Bristol, Dartford, and Walsoken, near Wis¬ 
bech. S. 
(We have seen a small variety, having only three lobes on each leaf, and 
those remarkably obtuse, and circular. It is said to be a native of Salis¬ 
bury Plane, and is preserved in Chelsea Garden. E.) 
STAPHYLE'A.f Cal. with five divisions: Petals five: Caps. 
inflated, two or three adhering together : Seeds two, glo¬ 
bular, marked with a scar, somewhat like a nut. 
S. pinna'ta. Leaves simply winged: (styles and capsules only two. E.) 
{E. Bot. 1560. E.)— Kniph. 3— Gisek. 56— Matth. 274— Lonic. 30. 2— Lob. 
Obs. 540. 2— Park. 1418 —J. B. i. a. 274— Ger. 1249 —Trag. 1098 —Dod. 
818 —Ger. Em. 1437. 
{Capsules two, rarely three together, membranous, inflated, obliquely pointed, 
very large. Seeds large, when ripe hard, and as if varnished. A low shrub, 
somewhat resembling an ashling, branched, smooth. Flowers bell¬ 
shaped, yellowish. FI. Brit. E.) Styles sometimes two, but mostly 
three. Capsule three-celled. Seeds constantly two in the larger cells, 
that in the third abortive. Leers. Leafits varying from egg-shaped to 
spear-shaped, but always pointed. Blossoms in whorls, (greenish or yel¬ 
lowish, bell-shaped, pendulous. E.) 
Winged Bladder-nut. (In hedges and thickets, but rare. E.) Hedges 
the berries is employed to give a red colour to raisin or sugar wines. The berries are 
poisonous to poultry. The pith being exceedingly light, is cut into balls, used for delicate 
toys and electrical apparatus. (If a twig of Elder be partially cut, then cautiously broken, 
and the divided portions carefully drawn asunder, the spiral air-vessels, (the largest in the 
vegetable economy), will be distinctly observable resembling a screw, and their structure 
become apparent. Several plates illustrative of the principles of vegetation and of these 
organs in particular, will be found in Fitzgerald’s “Surveys of Nature,” v. 2.; and 
more numerous and exquisitely finished ones in the admirable “ Elements of Botany,” by 
Anthony Tod Thomson, F. L. S. Elder is an excellent nurse plant in exposed situations, 
and forms a rapid hedge in moist places. Sheep browse upon it. Horses, cows, and goats 
refuse it. Linn. Others say that cows are fond of it. (A striped-leaved variety is raised in 
the nurseries. E.) Aphis Sambuci and Phalcena Sambucaria are found upon it. (Elder is 
also a favourite resort of the orange-striped caterpillar, which goes into the ground, and 
changes into a chrysalis about September, and in July appears as the gigantic moth 
Sphinx atropos , CTete de mart ), with a black head and very large eyes, and its black 
thorax plainly representing a death’s head. With this woful figure, it emits a shrill and 
dismal cry. The dead trunks and branches of Common Elder are frequently affected 
with patches of *Thelephora Sambuci. Grev. Scot. Crypt. 242. “ Resupinate, effused, 
thin, very white, rugose with tubercles, somewhat farinose and chalky, the margin 
glabrous.” E ) 
* The berries of this kind are also used for making a delicate wine. 
t (From crapj'hY), a grape ; which the fruit somewhat resembles. E.) 
