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Family Caprifoliaceae
Viburnum Lantana
The Wayfaring-tree may be looked for wherever
the soil is dry, as far north as Yorkshire. Though
not confined to chalk-hills it finds such conditions
best and is there especially abundant. It is not
indigenous in either Scotland or Ireland.
Though it grows to a height of twenty feet in
places, it can never properly be called a tree.
Its downy stems are never very stout. They branch
a good deal, and are always given off in pairs,
a branch from each side of the stem at exactly
the same height; the leaves are produced in the
same order. These leaves, which are three or four
inches in length, are much wrinkled, heart-shaped,
with a blunt, small end, white beneath, and the
edges very finely toothed.
The flower-cluster is a cyme, and it should be
noted that all the white flowers comprised in
it are of the same size and form, the corollas
being funnel-shaped, with five lobes, and the
five stamens are extruded from the mouth. The
flowers, which are jointed to the stalks, are
out in May and June, and the flattened oval fruits
that follow are at first red and then black.
The Wayfaring-tree is a bold plant; in winter
showing its large naked buds, all rough with starry
hairs, which keep off frost, as well as do the
many scales and thick varnish of Horse Chestnut
buds. In summer the broad, hairy leaves look as
dusty as a miller’s coat, and above them
spread the slightly rounded heads of white flowers;
later, the flowers are succeeded by bunches of
glowing coral beads, that in autumn become beads
of jet.
The local names of this shrub include Mealy-tree,
Whipcrop, Cotton-tree, Cottoner, Coventree, Lithe-wort,
Lithy-tree, Twist-wood and White-wood. Mealy-tree,
Cotton-tree, Cottoner and Whitewood all have obvious
reference to the appearance of the young shoots
and leaves, due to the presence of the white hairs
with which they are covered. Lithe-wort and Lithy-tree,
also Twist-wood and Whipcrop, indicate the supple
and elastic character of the branches, which are
often used instead of Withy to bind up a bundle
of sticks or vegetables, or to make a loop for
a gate fastener. On the Continent the shoots,
when only a year old, are used in basket-weaving,
and, when a year or two older, serve for pipe-stems.
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