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S A M B U C U S Ebulus.
Dwarf Eldery or Danewort.
P E N T A N D R IA Trigynia.
G en. C har. Cal. in 5 fegments. Cor. 5-cleft. Berry
with 3 feeds.
Spec. Char. Cymes with three principal branches.
Stipulae leafy. Stem herbaceous.
Syn . Sambucus Ebulus. Linn. Sp. P L 385. Hudf. 130.
With. 316. Relh. 127. Sibth. 104. Curt. Land,
fa fc. 3. t. l8.
S. humilis feu Ebulus. Rail Syn. 461.
T H E Dwarf Elder grows here and there in watte ground
throughout Britain, not commonly, though in great plenty
wherever it occurs at all, as the creeping roots fpread very far,
and are fcarcely to be eradicated. It is plentiful at Honing-
ham, Norfolk. Our fpecimen grew in Lambeth Marth. It
flowers after midfummer, and ripens its berries late in autumn,
which however, like the fruit of other creeping-rooted plants,
are rarely perfected.
The items are herbaceous, three feet high, ere£t, roundiih,
furrowed, leafy. Leaves pinnate, dark-green, fmoothiih, the
leaflets ovato-lanceolate, acute, ferrated ; unequal and generally
glandular at their bafe. Stipulse large, leafy, ferrated,
fometimes accompanying a pair of the leaflets as well as the
whole leaf. Cyme terminal, of three principal branches, and
many fmall ones, which are hairy. All the flowers Hand on
footftalks. Calyx fmall, purple. Petals1 of a dull blood-red.
Stamina thick, white, with red anthers, whofe lobes are diftant.
Berries globular, of a purpliih black, with three, fometimes four,
feeds.
The whole plant is foetid, and violently purgative. No
cattle will eat it. Moles will not come where the leaves of
this fpecies, or even the common Elder, are laid. A rob of
the berries, though actively cathartic, may be ufed with tolerable
fafety as far as the dofe of an ounce; but it has the inconveniences
of Senna, and is in no refpedt to be preferred to
that drug.