In the humid atmosphere of the west there is no more inveterate forest growth than the elder or, as we call it in Scotland, the bourtree (Sambucus nigra), which, springing from seeds which birds, having stuffed themselves with the sweet berries, distribute far and wide, shoots up with amazing rapidity, indifferent as to sun or shade, for it grows happily under dense forest canopy, although it is only in the open that it makes full display of its great discs of cream-coloured flowers.

From the earliest times there have been two schools of opinion about the elder. Pliny put faith in decoction of its leaves as a febrifuge, and in his day malaria was a terrible scourge in Italy. In 1644 appeared a book entirely devoted to its virtues—The Anatomie of the Elder, translated from the Latin of Dr. Martin Blockwich by C. de Iryngio; and thirty years later John Evelyn burst into a coruscation of italic type in praise of this humble tree.

"If the Medicinal properties of the Leaves, Bark, Berries, &c., were thoroughly known, I cannot tell what our Country-man could aile for which he might not fetch a Remedy from every Hedge, either for Sickness or Wound. The inner Barke of Elder, apply'd to any burning, takes out the fire immediately. That, or in season the Buds, boyl'd in Water-grewel for a Break-fast, has effected wonders in the Fever; and the decoction is admirable to asswage Inflammations and telrous humors, and especially the Scorbut. But an Extract or Theriaca may be compos'd of the Berries, which is not only efficacious to eradicate this Epidemical inconvenience, and greatly to assist Longevity (so famous is the story of NÆander), but is a kind of Catholicon against all infirmities; and of the same Berries is made an incomparable Spirit which, drunk by itself or mingled with Wine, is not only an excellent drink, but admirable in the Dropsy.... The Oyntment made with the young buds and leaves in May with Butter, is most soveraign for Aches, shrunk Sinews, Hemorrhoids, etc."

And so on and so on, much in the strain of modern advertisement of patent medicines. The boot is on the other leg now, for although hot elder-berry wine glows comfortably in memories of boyhood, I know not where I might now get a glass thereof, were I to perish for want of it.[15] Thoughtful housewives still provide elder flower water on the toilet tables of their guests, and methinks the ointment may be found in some conservative nurseries.

Contemporary with mediÆval esteem of the elder was the belief that it was accursed because it was the tree whereon Judas hanged himself. We know, of course, that in Southern Europe the beautiful Judas tree (Cercis siliquastrum) is stained by that imputation, but Sir John Mandeville (fourteenth century) assured his countrymen that he had been shown at Jerusalem the identical "Tree of Eldre" on which the traitor ended his career. The chief reason for hesitating to accept Mandeville's evidence is that he never, or hardly ever, told the truth except by accident. Shakespeare, however, entertained the belief, for in Love's Labour's Lost he makes Biron say to Holofernes, "Judas was hanged on an elder," and science has lent assent to the rural fancy which gave the name Jew's Ears to the flabby black fungus that makes the elder its peculiar host by calling it Hirneola auricula-JudÆ.

The pith which bulks so largely in the young growth of elder ceases to increase after the second year, and becomes compressed, and the wood that forms round it is exceedingly hard. In old times it was much in request for making pipes and other musical instruments. Pliny has preserved a quaint bit of folk-lore about it. He says the shepherds believe "that the most sonorous horns are made of an elder growing where it has never heard a cock crow." In our day we put the wood to no use whatever, unless, in the West of England, butchers still use it for skewering meat, which it was supposed to guard from taint. But—

No sound shall creak through the solemn pines,
The ocean shall lose its roar,
The wild horse cease to skim the plain,
The alpine peaks be level again,
The eagle forget to soar,

before our boys forget the simple craft that turns whistles and popguns out of elder shoots. For this, and certain other qualities, the elder claims a permanent place in our affection. It never winces or complains under the harshest phases of our climate, and it forgets its melancholy at midsummer, when an old bourtree, 30 feet high or so, set with scores of creamy saucers, is a really beautiful object.

The elder has given names to many places in our land. In the Cornish dialect of Celtic, now extinct, it was called scau and scauan, and is preserved in Tresco, Boscawen, Penscauan, etc. In old Celtic it was trom, genitive truim, whence, as we learn from the Book of Armagh, the town Trim, in Meath, was formerly Ath-truim, the elder ford. Galtrim, in the same county, appears in the annals as Cala-truim, the meadow of the elder. Trimmer, Trummer, and Trummery are Irish place-names, all perpetuating the memory of tromaire, an elder wood. The Truim, a principal tributary of the Spey, probably was originally Amhuinn Truim, the elder river. In the Scottish lowlands we find Bourtriehill, Bourtriebush, etc., while in England it is difficult to distinguish "elder" in composition from "alder." Skeat suggests the two words are of identical origin, and in each the d is intrusive. Elderfield, a parish in Worcestershire, Ellerby and Ellerton in Yorkshire bear a pretty clear stamp.