MIND YOUR ELDERS: <0 1994 Kate MacQuarrie 
     
    
   
   
    
     "Bour-tree, bour-tree: crooked rong 
     
     Never straight and never strong; 
     
     Ever bush and never tree 
     
     Since our Lord was nailed on thee" 
     
     - Scottish Ballad 
     
    
   
   
    
     Plant names, like Scottish ballads, may be obvious or obscure. 
     
     Most floral epithets do give some insight into the appearance, 
     
     habitat, history, or usefulness of the particular plant. While 
     
     some names are easy - blue bead lily and tall white aster are 
     
     equally uninspired, though descriptive - others are more difficult 
     
     to interpret. Similarly, plant scientific names may be easily 
     
     understood or downright complex. Populus grandidentata is one 
     
     example of the former; it is not hard to guess that this is 
     
     largetooth poplark But every once in awhile, you'll meet a plant 
     
     with neither an easily deciphered common nor scientific name. I'd 
     
     put elder (Sambucus spp.) into this category. 
     
    

    
     The name "elder" is believed to have been derived from the 
     
     Anglo-Saxon aeld or ellaern, meaning fire. This stems from the 
     
     once-common practice of using hollowed-out elder branches as 
     
     bellows for blowing fires. Sambucus also has its roots in hollow 
     
     elder branches and the ancient Greek "sambuke", a musical 
     
     instrument which was made from these branches. Today, the Italian 
     
     instrument "sampogna" is made from elder wood. 
     
    

    
     Elder is a plant of contradictions: the flowers smell sweet, 
     
     the leaves awful; once highly prized and valued (Hale’s Compleat 
     
     Body of Husbandry, 1756), it has been considered useless and a 
     
     nuisance in recent years; it is sometimes classed as a tree, 
     
     sometimes a shrub; mature elder wood is very strong while that of 
     
     young branches is made mostly of very soft pith. Its history is 
     
     long and varied. 
     
    

    
     There can be no doubt that elder is a versatile and useful 
     
     plant. The Roman writer Pliny (A.D. 23 - 79) tells us that elder 
     
     was used for medicines and hair dyes as well as flutes and pipes 
     
     (although he recommends using only those growing out of the range 
     
     of a cock’s crow for musical instruments). Anatomie of the Elder, 
     
     written in 1644 prescribes various parts of the elder for over 70 
     
     ailments, including blindness. During this time "elder" and 
     
     "alder" were used interchangeably; descriptions of the plant 
     
     confirm that it was Sambucus rather than Alnus. Folklore says that 
     
     elder was both one of the woods of the Cross - as mentioned in the 
     
     above Scottish ballad ("bour" means pipe) - and the tree from which 
     
     Judas hanged himself. The mythology associated with elder is 
     
     extensive. Throughout the centuries, elder has been used for more 
     
     than any other plant of the temperate zone: medicines, cosmetics, 
     
     watchmaking, microscopy, dyes, insect repellant, food and drink 
     
     have been associated with various parts of this plant. 
     
    

    
     On Prince Edward Island, we have two species of the genus 
     
     Sambucus: S. canadensis (common elder) and S. racemosa subspecies 
     
    
   
   
    
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