Over all the land, save where excessive cultivation and dressing of the
grounds have stripped the earth of its native garniture, the roadsides
are adorned with the different species of Viburnum. We detect them in
winter by their many colored branches and their finely divided spray.
May clothes them with a profusion of delicate and sweet-scented flowers;
lastly, autumn dyes their foliage purple and crimson, and hangs from
their branches clusters of variegated fruit; so that as native ornaments
of the borders of old fields and roads they are surpassed by no other
shrubs. The Viburnum constitutes a great part of the underwood of our
forests, thriving and bearing fruit under the deep shade of trees, but
assuming a handsome shape only outside of the wood. The flowers, in
circular clusters, or cymes, resemble those of the elder, but have less
fragrance.