Dwarf Elder.
Ebulus.
A PLANT so much resembling the common elder-tree, that it may be easily mistaken for it till examined. It grows four or five feet high. The stalks are green, round, tender, and upright; and they have very much the appearance of the young shoots of elder; but there is no woody part from whence they rise. The leaves are large, and composed of several pairs of others, as those of elder, with an odd one at the end; but these are longer than in the elder, and they are serrated round the edges. The flowers are small and white; but they stand in very large clusters or umbels, just as those of the elder; and they are succeeded by berries which are black when ripe; but that is a condition in which we seldom see them; for the birds are so fond of them, they eat them as they come to maturity. The root is white and creeping; and the whole plant dies down every year to the ground.
It is wild in England, but not common; a great quantity of it grows at the back of Cuper's gardens. It may be dried: but the best way of giving it is in the juice. This works strongly both by stool and urine, and has often cured dropsies.
