Viburnum

Viburnum, a genus of plants of the natural order Caprifoliaceæ, having a five-toothed calyx, a five-lobed, wheel-shaped, bell-shaped, or tubular corolla, five stamens, three sessile stigmas, and a one-seeded berry. The species are shrubs with simple leaves, natives chiefly of the northern parts of the world. V. opulus is the Guelder Rose (q.v.), or Snowball Tree, and V. tinus is the Laurustinus (q.v.), both well-known ornamental shrubs. V. lantana, sometimes called the Wayfaring Tree, is a native of the warmer temperate parts of Europe and Asia, not unfrequent in England, and often planted as an ornamental shrub. It is a large shrub or low tree, with large elliptic serrated leaves, downy, with star-like hairs on the under side. The young shoots are very downy. The flowers are small and white, in large dense cymes; the berries purplish black, mealy, and mucilaginous, with a peculiar sweetish taste. They are useful in diarrhoea and catarrh, and are used in Switzerland in the manufacture of ink. Bird-lime is made from the bark of the roots in the south of Europe, but is inferior to that made from the bark of the holly. The inner bark is very acrid, and was formerly used as a vesicant. The wood is white and hard, and is prized by turners. Tubes for tobacco-pipes are made of the young shoots. Two North American species, V. edule and V. oxycoccus, nearly allied to the Guelder Rose, produce berries of an agreeable acid taste, which are used like cranberries. The word viburna, from which the name is derived, was used by the ancients to denote any plant the branches of which were pliable and suitable for tying; some of the species are adapted by the toughness and pliability of their branches for that purpose.