S A M B U C U S nigra.
Common Elder.
P E N T A N D R I A Trigynia.
G en\ C har. Cal. in five fegments. Cor. 5-cleft. Berry
with 3 feeds.
Spec. Char. Cymes with five principal branches. Leaflets
ovate. Stem a tr ee.
Syn. Sambucus nigra. Linn. Sp. P l. 385. Hudf. 130.
With. 316. Relh. 128; Sibth. 105. Wooch. Med.
Bot. t. 78.
Sambucus. Raii Syn. 461.
A b u n d a n t every where in hedges and groves, flowering
in June, and ripening its berries copioufly in September.
This fpecies grows to a middle-fized bulhy tree, with a fmooth
grey bark when young. T he branches are oppofite, leafy, of
quick growth, and full of a light white pith, which is put to
various ufes for which fuch a fubftance is required. The pinnated
leaves confift: of about 5 oval, pointed, ferrated leaflets,
nearly equal at their bafe, and have no ftipulae, or very fmall
ones. Cymes terminal, folitary, of 5 principal branches, and
many fmall ones, and fome of the flowers are feffile. Flowers
cream-coloured, with a faint fmell, efpecially when dried.
Berries globular, purplilh black.
This tree is as it were a whole magazine of phyfic to ruftic
practitioners, nor is it quite neglected by more regular ones.
Ointments are made of the green inner bark, which is alfo a
ftrong purgative: the dried flowers infufed in water are ufed
in fomentations, or as tea, though in the latter capacity they
are weakening to the nerves : the berries are boiled into a rob,
which is really ufeful in fore throats and catarrhs, and acts as
a gentle laxative in febrile diforders. The leaves laid into the
fubterraneous paths of the mole drive it away; and an infufion
of them is extremely ufeful for curious gardeners to fprinkle
over the buds of fuch flowers as they wilh to preferve from
minute caterpillars, as few infeCts can bear the Elder. The
Phalana Sambucaria, however, feeds on this plant, and the
colouring of its delicate wings feems to imitate the blofloms.