what larger and separate. It is of a rich scarlet without, tinged with orange within, and on the stamens, which are slightly projecting. The flowers are terminal and in rather distant whorls, on long footstalks.

The uppermost or two uppermost pairs of leaves are connate, forming a round or oblong leaf, through the centre of which passes the stem. The next leaves are four or five inches long and two or three broad. The lower ones much more ⚫narrow but often longer. They are ovate-oblong, or elliptic, smooth, glaucous beneath. Recent shoots green. Stem gray, rough, the bark separating in long, fibrous scales.

The plant grows rapidly, throws out a multitude of branches, and has a singularly rich appearance, from the deep green of its leaves and the splendor of its scarlet flowers.

The second section includes erect or climbing plants, with flowers in the axils of the leaves; berries in pairs, distinct or united, not crowned with the limb of the calyx, and with leaves which are never connate; Xylósteum of Jussieu. The most beautiful and fragrant of this division is the Chinese or Japan Honeysuckle, L. Chinensis, not generally introduced, but as well deserving to be cultivated as any species whatever.

Four species are found in North America, two of them in Massachusetts. Both have two minute bracts at the summit of the flower-stalk.

Sp. 1. THE FLY HONEYSUCKLE.

L. ciliàta.

Muhlenberg.

A shrub five or six feet high, with a few straggling branches, growing among rocks and in wet places in Essex woods. The stem is round, slightly ridged by a line running down from the base of each of the branches, giving it an angular appearance. Bark striated, roughish, of a grayish ash color, clouded with brown. Branches opposite, forming a large angle. Leaves opposite, on very short, somewhat hairy stalks, broad ovate, or lanceolate, sometimes heart-shaped, entire, pointed, of a soft green above, paler beneath, substance soft and leathery. Wood soft, greenish white, very tough when young. Pith white, abundant, in small stems, occupying nearly half the diameter.

Flowers in pairs. The corolla is of a pale greenish yellow, with a slight projection on one side of the tube. Berries in pairs, diverging, egg-shaped, red, one fourth of an inch long. The flowers are in twos, on a long footstalk, with two, slender, short, thread-like bracts at the base of each.

Sp. 2. THE HAIRY FLY HONEYSUCKLE. L. cærulea. L.

A rough looking bush, from one to four feet high, with crowded, opposite, diverging branches, growing in bogs in the western part of the State. The leaves come out with the flowers. The flowers are on short stems, with long, slender bracts at the base of the calyx. From one calyx proceed two yellow corollas, bulging considerably outwards at the base of the tube, which ends in oblong, erect lobes. The leaves are oval or oblong, rough on both surfaces when young, but becoming smooth above when old. The berries, which are made up of two united ovaries, are blue, covered with a glaucous bloom.

XVIII. 4. THE BUSH HONEYSUCKLE. DIERVILLA.

Tournefort.

A genus of three or four species of erect shrubs, indigenous to North America and Japan, with opposite, ovate, acuminate, sharply serrate leaves, on short stems, with axillary flowers, two, three, or four on a stem, with two bracts at base. The calyx-tube is cylindrical, and contracted at the summit; the ovary is two-celled, crowned with a fleshy disk, which fills the throat of the calyx; the fruit a crustaceous or leathery capsule, with two cells, two valves, and many seeds.

THE THREE-FLOWERED BUSH HONEYSUCKLE. D. trifida.

D. trifida. Moench.

A bush from two to four feet high, with a root somewhat creeping and horizontal, throwing up erect shoots. A projecting ridge running down at equal distances on the four sides of the stem, gives it a somewhat four-sided appearance. The recent shoots are green or reddish green, with the projection very conspicuous between the leaves. The stem is gray. The leaves are opposite, on short footstalks, ovate or oblong-ovate, rounded or acute

at base, beautifully tapering, acuminate, and serrate, smooth above, slightly fringed with bent hairs on the margin, and sometimes a little hairy on the veins beneath. The flowers, which are yellow, are terminal, or in the axils of the upper Jeaves; usually three on a stalk, of which the middle one is commonly sessile. The seed-vessel is very long, egg-shaped, with a long, taper point, crowned with the awl-shaped segments of the calyx. A variety occurs with the leaves narrower and thicker, much smaller, and constantly acute at base.

FAMILY XIX. THE ELDER FAMILY.

VIBURNEE. BARTLING.

Closely allied to the Honeysuckle Family, with which it has, until recently, been united, this small family, embracing about eighty species, found, generally, in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, is strikingly distinguished by its habit and mode of flowering. Many of the species have beautiful flowers and foliage, and are favorites in ornamental gardens. The snow-ball, so great a favorite in many countries of Europe and in this, is a sterile variety of Viburnum ópulus. The fruits are, generally, acid or astringent, sometimes purgative. The sweet flowers of the common elder, both of Europe and of this country, are sudorific, and the European species has been used as such from ancient times. They are packed in casks, by the French, with fruit, to give it an agreeable odor. Elder-berry rob, and wine, have long enjoyed, in England, an apparently well deserved reputation. The leaves and inner bark of these same elders are offensive, and have emetic and particularly purgative qualities in a powerful degree. The fruit of some species of Viburnum are austere and astringent; of others, not unpleasant to the taste, and capable of forming an article of food. The Wayfaring Tree, the Guelder Rose, and the Laurustinus, all species of Viburnum, are ancient favorites in England and other parts of Europe; the latter for the precious property of flowering, in warm countries, through the winter.

The plants of this family are shrubs or small trees, with apparently articulated branches and young stems containing pith of extraordinary thickness and durability; simple or compound, opposite leaves; perfect and regular flowers in broad, terminal cymes; a five-cleft, persistent calyx, adhering almost throughout to the ovary; a five-lobed bell- or wheel-shaped corolla, with lobes alternate with the parts of the calyx; five stamens inserted in the tube of the corolla and alternate with its lobes; an ovary with one, three, or five cells, and an ovule in each; and a fruit, which is a pulpy or fleshy drupe, with one or three, one-celled, one-seeded nuts.

Two genera, the Elder and Viburnum are found here, flowering shrubs or low trees, very widely diffused in distant regions of the northern temperate zone; and, in New England, the conspicuous ornaments of the borders of fields and woods and the sides of enclosures, in the early part of summer.

The Elder has compound leaves and a pulpy fruit with three nuts; the Viburnum has simple leaves and a fleshy fruit with

one nut.

XIX. 1. THE ELDER. SAMBUCUS. Tournefort.

A genus of about twenty species of shrubs or perennial herbs, with a penetrating odor. Leaves opposite, pinnate, with the leaflets serrate, cut or laciniate, with two stipules or glands at the base of each. Flowers white or somewhat flesh-colored, usually fragrant, in compound cymes. There are two species in this State.

S. pubens. Michaux.

Sp. 1. THE PANICLED ELDER. This is usually a coarse-looking bush, four to six feet high, with a large, whitish stalk, becoming brown when old, dotted with rusty, oblong dots, which enlarge and give a rough and warty appearance to the older and darker part of the stem.

The leaves are opposite, on large, round, fleshy footstalks, channelled above. The leaflets are five or seven, ovate-lanceshaped, rounded or acute, sometimes heart-shaped at base,

tapering to a long point, serrate, of a dull, dark green above whitish pubescent beneath.

The common flower-stalk is stout, long, and channelled, bearing a cyme of several pairs of alternating opposite, horizontal stalks, repeatedly dividing by twos or threes, at as large an angle as possible, so as to form a pyramidal head or thyrsus, two or three inches long. At the fifth division, are the flowers in pairs or threes, on short stems. The fruit, which is ripe in June and July, is a round, scarlet berry, surmounted by the three stigmas and the five obtuse segments of the calyx, and containing a yellowish, unpleasantly tasted, liquid pulp, and three stones or nuts. The variety with seven leaflets, more uncommon, has its leaflets nearly sessile, and is usually a much taller plant.

Drs. Torrey and Gray mention a variety found in the Catskill Mountains, with white berries. They have sometimes found the plant a small tree, eighteen feet high. The common variety is found in Worcester County, in the towns on every side of the Wachusett Mountain.

Sp. 2.

THE COMMON ELDER. S. Canadensis. L.

Found in every part of the State and throughout Canada and the United States. It is a shrub, eight to ten feet high, growing in wet ground, and conspicuous in June and July for its broad cymes of white flowers. The leaf-stalks, flower-stalks and leaves are much smaller than in the preceding species. The stem is covered with a grayish bark, marked with prominent dots of the same color. Recent shoots smooth and green.

Leaves opposite, compound, with a smooth stalk, channelled above. Leaflets from five to eleven, on short stalks, oblong, ovate or obovate or elliptic, round at base, tapering to a long, acute point, serrate with large, hooked serratures, paler beneath, nearly smooth on both surfaces, when the fruit is mature, downy beneath when young.

Flowers white, in broad cymes five to seven inches across, on long, channelled, tapering stalks, divided and subdivided by