_Elder Flowers_; F. _Fleurs de Sureau_; G. _Holunderblüthe_,
_Fliederblumen_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Sambucus nigra_ L.—a large deciduous shrub or
small tree, indigenous to Southern and Central Europe (not in Russia),
Western Asia, the Crimea, the regions of the Caucasus and Southern
Siberia. It is believed to be a native of England and Ireland, but not
to be truly wild in Scotland. In other northern parts of Europe, as
Norway and Sweden, the elder appears only as a plant introduced there
during the middle ages by the monks.[1270]
[1266] _Statistical Tables relating to the Colonial and other
possessions of the United Kingdom_, xi. 618. 619.
[1267] _Consular Reports_, Aug. 1873, 917; in 1876 only 380 cwt.
[1268] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of
Bombay for 1872-73._ pt. ii. 90.
[1269] _Annual Volume of Trade, etc. for the Bengal Presidency for
1870-71._ 121.
[1270] Schübeler, _Pflanzenwelt Norwegens_ (1873-75) 253.
=History=—The Romans, as we learn from Pliny, made use in medicine of
the plant under notice as well as of the _Dwarf Elder_ (_S. Ebulus_
L.) Both kinds were employed in Britain by the ancient English[1271]
and Welsh[1272] leeches, and in Italy in the medicine of the school of
Salernum.
=Description=—The elder produces in the early summer, conspicuous,
many-flowered cymes, 4 to 5 inches in diameter, of which the long
peduncle divides into 5 branches, which subdivide once or several
times by threes or fives, ultimately separating by repeated forking
into slender, furrowed pedicels about ¼ of an inch long, each bearing
a single flower. In the second or third furcations, the middle flower
remains short-stalked or sessile, and opens sooner than the rest. In
like manner, on the outermost small forks only one of the florets is
usually long-stalked. The whole of this inflorescence forms a flattish
umbelliform cyme, perfectly glabrous and destitute of bracts.
The calyx is combined with the ovary and bordered with 4 or 5 small
teeth. The corolla, which is of a creamy white, is monopetalous with
a very short tube and 5 spreading ovate lobes. The stamens which are
about as long as the divisions of the corolla and alternate with
them, are inserted in the tube of the latter. The yellow pollen which
thickly powders the flowers, appears under the microscope 3-pored. The
projecting ovary is crowned by a 2-or 3-lobed sessile stigma.
For use in pharmacy, the part of the flower most desirable is the
corolla, to obtain a good proportion of which the gathered cymes are
left for a few hours in a large heap; the mass slightly heats, the
corollas detach themselves, and are separated from the green stalks by
shaking, rubbing, and sifting; they require to be then rapidly dried.
This done, they become much shrivelled and assume a dull yellow tint.
When fresh, they have a sweet faint smell, which becomes stronger and
somewhat different by drying, and is quite unlike the repulsive odour
of the fresh leaves and bark. Dried elder flowers have a bitterish,
slightly gummy flavour. On the Continent they are sold with the stalks,
_i.e._ in entire cymes.
=Chemical Composition=—Elder flowers yield a very small percentage of a
butter-like essential oil, lighter than water, and smelling strongly of
the flowers; it is easily altered by exposure to the air.[1273] The oil
is accompanied by traces of volatile acids.
=Uses=—Elder flowers are only employed in British medicine for making
an aromatic distilled water, and for communicating a pleasant odour
to lard (_Unguentum Sambuci_). The flowers of _Sambucus canadensis_
L.[1274] indigenous in the United States, which are extremely similar
to those of our species, appear to be more fragrant. The _leaves_ of
the latter are sometimes used for giving a fine green tint to oil or
fat, as in the _Oleum viride_ and _Unguentum Sambuci foliorum_ of the
shops. The bark, once much employed, is now obsolete.
[1271] _Leechdoms, etc. of Early England_ edited by Cockayne, iii.
(1866) 324. 347. According to the Rev. Edward Gillett (p. xxxii.), _S.
Ebulus_ is believed to have been brought to England by the Danes and
planted on the battlefield and graves of their countrymen. In Norfolk
it still bears the name of _Danewort_ and _blood hilder_ (blood elder).
[1272] The Physicians of Myddfai (see Appendix) used sage, rue, mallow,
and _elder flowers_ as ingredients of a gargle. _Meddygon Myddvai_,
219. 403.
[1273] For further information, see Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiv. (1860)
368.
[1274] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 21 (1877).