Guelder Rose, a cultivated form of Viburnum Opulus (see VIBURNUM), also popularly named Snowball Tree. The normal or wild form of the guelder rose is a pretty plentiful native of England and Ireland, but is less frequently to be found in a wild state in Scotland. It is widely distributed in Europe and Russian Asia, and even extends into the Arctic regions. Its flowers appear in early summer in rather dense cymes, 2 or 3 inches in diameter; the outer flowers become much enlarged, attaining about an inch in diameter, but, having neither stamens nor pistils, are perfectly barren. The inner flowers are small, white, with two or three pistils on very short styles, and are followed by globular, blackish-red berries. In the cultivated form the flowers are all monstrous and barren, like the outer flowers of the cymes of the wild form; and crowded as they are together in the cyme, the structure of which is not enlarged, the inflorescence assumes the form of a compact ball, hence the name Snowball Tree. In cultivation the plant attains the proportions of a small tree, and flowers most freely after it has acquired some age. When in flower in May and June it is one of the most ornamental of hardy trees, and is therefore planted largely in pleasure-grounds and shrubberies. The wild form is reared from seeds and cuttings, the monstrous form from cuttings or layers only.