Guelderrose

Guelder-rose, the garden name of the cultivated variety of Viburnum Opulus, a tree belonging to the Honeysuckle family, in which all the flowers in the eymose clusters are neater and have the corolla much enlarged in lieu of the absent essential organs. In this variety, introduced into cultivation from Guelderland, these corollas, each three-quarters of an inch across, are massed into a globose inflorescence, whence the tree is popularly known as the Snow-ball Tree. The wild form of the species, in which only the outer flowers are neuter and have enlarged corollas and the inflorescence is flat, is known as Water Elder, flourishing by the water-side. Its opposite leaves are irregularly three to five-lobed and turn red in autumn, and its fruits are elliptical translucent blood-red berries; so that, unfortunately, both in summer and autumn branches are torn off for sale in the streets of London. The cultivated tree flourishes in the clayey soil of gardens near London. The name Mealy Guelder-rose is a book name for V. Lantana, a shrub common on calcareous soils and also known as Wayfaring Tree. Another allied species is the Laurustinus of our shrubberies ( V. Tinus).